Through a Mortal's Eyes
by SilentEmmy
Summary: Brice is a mortal who has a crush on Annabeth Chase. But what happens when he develops misunderstandings about Annabeth's boyfriend Percy? Read to find out what Brice's encounters with the demigod world look like through the eyes of a mortal.
1. Chapter 1

**Before you read, I just wanted to let you know that this fanfiction is still unfinished and I am not confident that I will ever finish it. However, if people are interested then I will post my rough draft of the ending. This is the first fanfiction I've written, so it isn't that great, but I tried. I was inspired by _just. a. little. too .obsessed_ 's fanfiction titled _Mortals_ (it is pretty funny, you should check it out) so you may see some similarities, but I tried to keep mine original (well as original as fanfictions can be). Hers was the third fanfiction I had ever read, and I guess I got pretty into it because a week later I had written a completed 38 page long rough draft for my fanfiction through a mortal's eyes. What I will be posting is my final copy which is currently 41 pages, but only covers a little over half of my rough draft (somehow it nearly doubled in length). If people are interested then I will try just polishing my rough draft to complete the story. Other than that, enjoy.**

 ****PJO CHARACTERS ARE OWNED BY RICK RIORDAN****

* * *

JI looked into the grimy bathroom mirror of the school once more. Tufts of my hazelnut brown hair were sticking up everywhere. I tried wetting it down, but to no avail. I patted it down one last time before giving up. I closed my eyes and sighed, _this was as good as it was going to get_. I adjusted the collar of my shirt one last time before slipping quietly out the bathroom. The halls were mostly empty at this time, as classes had already dismissed for the day. Everyone was gathering in crowds in front of the school building chatting with their friends. I breathed deeply trying to control my nerves as I pushed open the door and walked out the building.

The sun blinded me as I stepped outside causing me to squint until my eyes adjusted. I made my way down the stairway searching for a familiar head of curly blonde hair. Finally, I saw her; she was sitting by the front gate, leaning against a tree and reading a book. She looked gorgeous in the sunlight with her golden blonde hair falling out of her ponytail in ringlets around her face. The way she gazed intently at her book, as if getting lost in another world. I don't think she tried to be beautiful, she simply was.

I felt my hands shake and my heart start racing as I planned out what I was going to say to her. I had been planning on asking her out for weeks now, but I never had the right opportunity. _Today was going to be different_ , I told myself. _Today was the day that I would ask out Annabeth Chase_.

A little over a month ago, I had been talking to my friend Jaden Hale about Annabeth, who had recently transferred to our school. At that time, I hadn't even realized my feelings for Annabeth. I simply wanted to be around her. I enjoyed watching her face light up when she talked about architecture. I loved how passionate she was when she talked about the Greek gods. She knew so many of the ancient myths and could talk about them for hours. I even found little quirks like how she used gods and Hades as curse words quite endearing. It wasn't until Jaden jokingly teased me about having a crush on her, that I realized he was right. I had fallen for Annabeth Chase.

I navigated my way through the crowds of people still gathering. I almost lost Annabeth a few times as I nudged my way between the hordes of students, but it only took me a second to find her again, as she remained seated in the exact same spot. She didn't look up at me as I approached closer and kept her eyes focused on her book. I stood there awkwardly for a moment trying to decide how to get her attention before opting to sit down beside her. "H-hey Annabeth," I said, not quite as confidently as I was going for.

"Oh, hey Brice," she said barely looking up from her book.

"What are you reading?" I asked. I was only prolonging the inevitable. I was going to have to ask her out eventually, otherwise I would live the rest my life regretting not having the courage to find out her response.

"It's called Agamemnon, it is part of the Oresteia trilogy," Annabeth told me. I recalled the plays from my introduction to theatre class I'd taken freshman year. I'd never read them, but they were really big during the period of Greek theatre.

"It's by Aeschylus right? I've heard of them," I said.

"Really?" She asked, her voice raising a bit as she got excited, "Not many kids know about these plays anymore. They are really good. Plays used to be a central part of the Greek culture, especially tragedies. They saw it as a sort of catharsis. They would have a festival devoted to plays for the god Dionysus and everybody would be required to attend. Oresteia is one of the few surviving tragedies of that time."

I smiled at the way she talked a lot when she got excited. I rested my head on my knees and watched her as she continued to tell me about the history of the plays and how she thinks more Greek influence should be taught in schools. I could have listened to her talk for hours.

"Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent there. I just don't think Americans take the influence of ancient Greece seriously enough. I should be quiet before I start ranting again."

"Not at all. I like listening to your rants. You're cute when you're frustrated about something," I blushed realizing what I'd just said. _Did that really just come out of my mouth?_ I thought, _Crap, I just told her she's cute. Now she is going to think I'm a creeper. No, wait, this could be a good thing. I was planning on asking her out anyways. Maybe this is a chance to move our relationship forward._

She seemed to pause and analyze what I'd just said before responding, "Mm, my boyfriend seems to think that. Although, he tends to take it as an acceptable time to kiss me to make me shut up."

My heart dropped when those words came out of her mouth. "Boyfriend?" I asked turning by head so as to not meet her eyes.

She smiled at me knowingly, "Yeah, we've been together for over a year now. He is the reason I transferred here to New York this semester."

"Oh," I looked down at the ground in disappointment. _They've been together for over a year. They must be pretty serious then. There's no way I would even stand a chance now._

"Ah, my rides here. I'll see you tomorrow Brice," Annabeth called before running off to a small car parked on the side of the street. A boy around our age stepped out and held open the passenger side door for Annabeth. I couldn't help but feel jealousy as I watched Annabeth hug the boy before hopping into the passenger seat. I wondered if that was her boyfriend. He was certainly good looking enough. He had unkempt raven black hair and a tan muscular body. He resembled the troublemaker skater type, not at all the kind of guy I figured Annabeth would be interested in.

After a few depressing minutes of staring into space lost in thought, I slung my bag onto my back and made my way to the bus stop. The bus still hadn't arrived yet, so I took a seat on a nearby bench. Shortly after, my friends came up and sat down beside me.

"Dude, where have you been? You disappeared right after school ended," Jaden asked me.

"Yeah, we were looking all over for you," my other friend Eli added.

"It's none of your concern," I said bitterly.

"Did something happen?" Jaden inquired. Concern filled his voice. I'd been best friends with him since middle school, and he knew almost immediately when something was wrong.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said, which was mostly true. I didn't want to talk to them about it because then I would have to talk about feelings and crap like that, but on the other hand, I wanted to tell them everything that happened. I felt like my world had just collapsed with the revelation that Annabeth had a boyfriend.

They both nodded in understanding, before making ridiculous attempts to cheer me up. I could tell what they were doing, but I laughed anyways. It felt good to have friends to keep your mind off your troubles, and for a little while, I was able to forget my almost definite rejection.

* * *

The next day, I remained extra cautious around Annabeth. Although she didn't know that I was about to ask her out yesterday, I still felt rather embarrassed about the whole situation. When fourth period rolled around, I navigated my way through the congested hallway to Ms. Benson's AP World History class. I took a deep breath before entering the room, knowing Annabeth would already be inside. I scanned the room when I walked in. Annabeth was sitting near the back of the room beside my usual desk. She had already taken out her notebook and was reviewing for the quiz at the beginning class today. Her gray eyes were focused on her notes as she twirled a loose strand of hair around her finger. I slipped quietly into my desk and tried not to be noticed.

"Alright class, I've got some exciting news for you today!" Ms. Benson announced as she walked into the classroom. Everyone in the class groaned. When a teacher, especially Ms. Benson, says they have exciting news, trust me, it is not exciting. "We will be starting our projects on Ancient Greek and Roman deities!" she said, like she actually expected us to be excited about a project.

I looked over and sitting on the edge of her seat with a big excited grin on her face was Annabeth. I couldn't help but smile at her. Annabeth was the only person I knew that would get excited over a project like this. I was willing to bet that her head was filling up with ideas for it right now.

Ms. Benson passed out a handout over the project and explained the requirements of it before letting us partner up. "No groups bigger than two. If we have to, then we can have one group of three!" Ms. Bensons voice grew louder in an attempt to talk over all the students who were already planning their group.

In about thirty seconds, the whole class was already paired up and only a few stragglers were remaining. I looked over to see Annabeth still looking for a partner. "Hey, Annabeth," I said, "Do you mind working with me?"

"Not at all. I already have so many ideas for this," she smiled. I felt my heart race under her gaze.

"M-me too," I stuttered, "We should plan a time to work on it afterschool."

"How about Saturday? I should be home all day that day. I can give you my address unless you'd prefer working someplace else?"

"Saturday sounds great," I said, ecstatic that I would get to visit Annabeth's house. It would be a study date! My cheeks grew red at the thought. _Stop it. She has a boyfriend, remember!_ I chastised myself mentally.

She quickly jotted her address down on a scrap sheet of paper before Ms. Benson yelled at everyone to return to their seats for the quiz.

* * *

As soon as the dismissal bell rang signaling the end of school, the hallways were flooded with hordes of students rushing out the building. I met with Eli and Jaden at my locker and walked with them out the building. We stepped out of the building into the sunlight. I scanned the grounds for Annabeth as Jaden and Eli got in a heated discussion over which gaming YouTuber was the best. I spotted Annabeth sitting under the same tree as yesterday almost finished with her book. Her honey blonde curls reminded me of a princess.

"Hey, earth to Brice!" Jaden called.

"Huh?" I looked over confused. I hadn't been listening to their conversation.

"Which gamer do you think is better?" Jaden asked.

"I don't know. Hey, you guys go on without me. I have to talk to someone real quick," I told them before running off in Annabeth's direction. I don't know what came over me, but just because Annabeth had a boyfriend didn't mean that I couldn't talk to her. Even if I didn't have a chance with her romantically, I still wanted to be her friend.

I hadn't gotten very far before I heard a loud squeal of tires come down the street. I turned around to see a large white van come to screeching halt directly in front of the school building. The van was completely white with tinted windows. Written in cursive on the side of the van in red lettering were the words _Delphi Strawberry Delivery Service_. I wondered what a strawberry delivery truck would be doing at our school. It wasn't like the cafeteria ever served fresh fruit. Anything other than brown pears and shriveled up apples would be too difficult for the lunch ladies to handle.

The doors on the sides of the van popped open. Since I was expecting to see a bunch of men step out of the truck unloading boxes of strawberries in white coveralls, it was a bit surprising when a bunch of teenagers came piling out of the vehicle. They didn't look like anyone I'd seen around school before, and the way they were dressed, well, they obviously didn't belong here. They looked like a very oddly assorted group. Had I not just seen them all come out of the van together, I never would have pegged them as friends. Their only similar characteristic was that they gave off a dangerous vibe that told me it would be a bad idea to cross these people.

I watched as a familiar looking boy got out of the driver's seat. His messy raven black hair reminded me of the boy I'd seen Annabeth with yesterday. On the other side of the van, getting out of the passenger seat, a goth looking girl with short black spiky hair complained, "How did you even get you license? For the safety of everyone, you should have it revoked!"

"Hey! I'm not that bad," the boy who'd been driving complained.

"I have to agree with Thalia on this one," said a younger, emo looking boy, "Even I can drive better than that." He couldn't have been more than fifteen.

"You drive?" A redheaded girl with an annoyingly cheerful disposition laughed. She looked like an artist the way her clothes were covered in paint splatters and doodles.

"Well, not technically. I don't really need to. My dad got me a driver." He said.

"Ugh, I hate chauffeurs," The red head groaned.

"Jules-Albert isn't so bad."

"As long as he's better than Percy, he can drive on the way back," the goth looking girl countered.

"It's just cause the van is so much bigger than Paul's car," the boy I assumed to be Percy murmured towards the ground.

"Hey guys, why don't you stop messing around and help find her," said another boy, who had just now gotten out of the van. He was using crutches to walk over to them and had a funny gait. He wore a Rasta cap on top of his curly brown hair.

"Guys, she's right over there," the redheaded girl pointed in the direction of the tree by the front gate. I was shocked when I realized the only person over there was Annabeth. _Did Annabeth know these people?_ That would certainly explain why the one boy called Percy looked familiar. I wouldn't have been worried, except that something about these people set off alarms in my head. These people looked dangerous. They were all tense and ready for a fight at any second. _Were they a gan_ g? I wondered. Some of them definitely had that type of appearance. _Why would they be looking for Annabeth though? Don't tell be she has gotten mixed up in something serious._ Whatever they wanted with her, all I knew was I had to protect her. Even if they turned out to be friends, I had to make sure not to let anyone hurt her. I started walking towards her, but the group reached her first.

"Well, well, if it isn't Annabeth Chase," the punk girl said in chilling voice.

Annabeth jumped. Her body tensed as her hand immediately reached for something strapped to her waist. I was startled to see the fierce expression on her face as she looked up, but as soon as she saw who it was, she relaxed and broke into a huge grin. "Thalia! What are you doing here?"

"We decided to pick you up and surprise you after school. Sorry we're a bit late, a certain seaweed brain mixed up the time you were dismissed." Thalia explained.

"Actually, Chiron sent us to talk about a couple things going on at camp," the younger boy corrected.

"Shut up Nico. Can't you let her enjoy the peace for a few more minutes?" Thalia chided.

Nico didn't say anything and just looked at the ground with his hands shoved in the pockets of his black aviator jacket.

"What happened at camp?" Annabeth said. Her voice was filled with worry and concern.

"Nothing, just a couple _minor_ problems with the borders and the forest. We will talk about it later," Thalia said, glaring at Nico the whole time. Annabeth didn't seem to believe her, but she didn't push for answers.

"Don't worry, wise girl. Everything will be fine," Percy said, putting his arm around her.

"Where is everyone else?" Annabeth asked looking around the group.

"Chiron didn't think it was a good idea to have so many come at once, so everyone else is back at camp. He thought it was dangerous enough with all the big three children together," The redhead answered.

Annabeth nodded solemnly before looking around warily as if expecting something to jump out at them any second. Suddenly Percy speaks excitedly, which didn't exactly fit with the atmosphere, "Come on, let's go home. I have a surprise for you tonight!"

"What is it?" Annabeth asked.

"I can't tell you, it would ruin the surprise."

"Did you get your SAT results back?!" Annabeth asked excitedly thinking she'd figured out his surprise.

Percy pulled away from Annabeth sheepishly, "I was hoping you forgot about that."

"How could I forget about it? The whole reason I moved back to New York was to help you with them. You know we won't be able to go to New Rome together next year if you don't score high enough." Annabeth reprimanded him.

"I know. I promise, I'll keep trying," Percy smirked and leaned in to kiss her. I expected Annabeth to pull away and punch him, like she did to all the other guys who've tried making moves on her. But instead, to my horror, she leaned in and kissed him back. It was so heartbreaking to see the girl you like kissing another guy. All the dreams I'd ever had of confessing to her and falling in love were shattered. I already knew she had a boyfriend, but it never fully set in until that moment.

"Gah," Thalia fake gagged. "Get a room!" They ignored her.

It took me a moment to overcome my shock, but I finally walked over to them. Clearing my throat, I got Annabeth's attention.

As she turned to look at me, my eyes couldn't help but notice their fingers interlocking as Percy held her hand. A twinge of jealousy stirred within me. I wanted to be the one holding her hand. The world wasn't fair.

"Oh, hi Brice, this is my boyfriend Percy. I told you about him yesterday."

With those words, I felt like every last shred of hope that I had unconsciously been clinging to disintegrated in an instant. _What did he have that I didn't?_ He looked like nothing more than a troublemaker. I doubted he could ever treat Annabeth the way she deserved. If I was ever lucky enough to get a girl as brilliant as Annabeth Chase to fall in love with me, then I would treasure her every day. But it was not my place to interfere, so I kept my mouth shut. "What about the others? Friends of yours?" I asked.

"Yes, this is Thalia, Grover, Nico, and Rachel," Annabeth said, pointing to each person in turn. "They're friends from the camp I go to in the summers."

"Oh. Yeah, you've mentioned it before," I said, recalling it being brought up in conversation one day. I was about to say something more, but Annabeth spoke first.

"Sorry, we should probably get going now. I'll talk to you on Saturday."

That's right! I had a study date with Annabeth on Saturday. _How could I have forgotten?_ I watched as Annabeth walked away. I knew deep in my heart that we were meant to be together, one way or another. It was only a matter of time.


	2. Chapter 2

**** PJO CHARACTERS BELONG TO RICK RIORDAN****

* * *

I looked at my reflection in the mirror and fixed my shirt. I had chosen a navy button-up shirt and khakis for my study date with Annabeth. I hoped wasn't overdressed, but I wanted to look good in front of her and her parents if they were home. I wanted to make this go perfectly. After deciding I was ready, I grabbed my stuff and headed to the bus stop.

When I arrived at the address that Annabeth had written down for me, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and knocked on the door. The door was painted a royal blue color with golden bronze numbering. I fidgeted with the collar of my sleeve as I waited anxiously for the door to open.

"I've got it," I heard a male voice call.

Shortly after, the door swung open revealing a familiar dark haired green eyed boy. This was the first time I'd seen him up close. He was a bit taller than I was by an inch or two and was far more muscular than I was. Not that I'm the best example to compare physical traits to; for a guy, I tended to be on the weaker side.

"Hey, you're... um- "Percy said rubbing his already messy hair as he struggled to remember my name.

"Brice," I smiled and reached out to shake his hand. I was shocked to see a tattoo on his forearm when he grabbed my hand. It looked like it had been burned on his skin with the letters SPQR and a triton.

"Percy," He told me his name, although I already knew it. I have always been good with names, unlike most people.

'Like Perseus from the myths," I remarked.

"Yeah, like the myths," He gave a lopsided grin almost laughing to himself about an inside joke that I didn't understand.

"Is Annabeth home? We are supposed to be working on a project together."

At that moment I heard Annabeth call from inside, "Percy! What's taking so long? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah! Give me a minute!" He called. "Sorry, I guess I'm not fast enough. Come on in," he chuckled.

I followed him inside a small but cozy apartment. The walls were painted a soft blue and had a light and comfortable atmosphere. The furniture was a bit old and had clearly been worn and loved. Pictures of Percy and a brown haired woman covered the walls. I only saw a few pictures of Annabeth, which confused me since I thought this was her house. After I had taken in my surroundings, I sat down on the couch on the spot where Percy had moved a few blankets and pillows aside to make room for me.

"Stay here, I'll go get Annabeth. She has been pretty busy lately, so it might take a while. She gets kind of hard to talk to when she's like this," Percy smiled, "Don't tell her I said that though. She would kill me if she heard that." He seemed like a nice enough guy, but something about him didn't set right with me, as if my instinct were telling me to run as far away from this kid as possible. _That's ridiculous though_ , I reassured myself.

"Why should I kill you? Please tell. I'd love to have an excuse." I heard Annabeth coming down the hallway.

"In that case, I think I should stay quiet," Percy laughed as he wrapped her in a hug and whispered something in her ear.

She nodded, "Go on. Maybe you'll find more clues as to what's going on. I feel like I've been going in circles trying to figure this out." Percy quickly left out the front door to who knows where. Annabeth turned to me, "Hey Brice. You ready to work on that project?"

She had smile on her face, but it looked forced. It reminded me of when my parents were going through a really nasty divorce and I had to go about my normal day like everything was fine, but on the inside I was miserable. Her eyes looked tired and her hair was messier than usual. She looked stressed and distracted. After working on the project for a while, I could tell her heart wasn't into it.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her.

"What?"

"You seem worried about something." I was beginning to regret speaking up. _What if she didn't want to talk to me about it? What if I am pestering her or what if I am completely misinterpreting her expressions and nothing is wrong at all?_

"Yeah, I am," I waited to see if she would go into further detail about it, but she didn't seem like she wanted to.

"If-if you ever need anyone to talk to about it, then- "she cut me off.

"I understand, but I don't think this is a problem that you can help with," She stared off into the distance vacantly. He gray eyes seemed calculating.

"My offer still stands. I might not be able to help much with the problem, but sometimes it helps to just be able to talk to someone about it."

"Maybe," she nodded. I wanted so bad to help her, I wanted her to trust me and depend on me for support, but most of all I wanted her to be okay. I didn't like to watch her stressed and worried like this.

"It's true. It might help you feel less alone to have someone else who knows what you are going through. You don't have to be strong all the time." I tried getting her to open up to me, but I knew it would take more than that. She didn't say anything, so I continued rambling about my life, "I learned that the hard way during my parents' divorce. It was terrible, they fought so much and told terrible lies about each other. It was the longest year of my life. I was in the middle of all their fights, so I couldn't complain to them how I felt about the situation. And, I didn't want to tell my friends at school because I was ashamed at the way my parents were behaving. I felt alone because no one understood what I was going through. At school, my friends would complain about their parents or something and little did they know all the problems I was having with mine. Long story short, I eventually broke down and I realized that everything would have been so much easier if I had been honest with everyone from the beginning."

Annabeth was looking at me now, my cheeks blushed red under her gaze. "I didn't know that about you. I never thought about other people having family problems too. Your lives all seem so easy, so perfect."

I offered a slight smile, "I guess you just never know what other people are going through."

"You don't know the half of it," She grinned before her expression filled back with sadness, "Maybe one day, if we're still friends, then I'll tell you."

"We'll still be friends." I reassured her, although I sounded doubtful. I hoped that we would still be friends for a long time, but the way she talked, it was as if she didn't expect us to. Almost as if she didn't actually consider me a friend at all.

"We should focus on the project," she said turning back to the papers scattered on the small table in front of us. She pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes more focused than before. We worked in near silence on the project for the next few hours, until there was a knock at the door.

"Annabeth…" a familiar voice croaked from behind the door.

Annabeth shot up with worry and nearly ran to the door. "Percy! What happened?!" She yelled upon seeing the injured Percy leaning against the doorframe clutching his side. His shirt was stained red with blood where he was holding and he looked deathly pale.

"I kinda messed up," he said near collapsing on top of her.

"Oh gods, we have to get you to the bathroom! Where do you keep your- ah- " she stopped suddenly and glanced at me warily. Percy's eyes, which he could barely keep opened, looked over at me too as if just realizing I was still there.

"Bedroom. Top drawer," he murmured.

"Okay. I'll get it." She said, heaving Percy up and helping him down the hallway.

"Do you need any help?" I called, "What happened? Should I call an ambulance?" I was starting to panic now. Percy looked in pretty bad shape and there was a lot of blood. How could he have gotten injured like that?

"No. No, he'll be fine. You should probably go," Annabeth called hauling a groaning Percy.

"He'll be fine?! He looks like he's been shot!" I practically screamed, my panic taking hold of me. "You need to get him to a hospital or- or- he needs help! A doctor or something!"

"I am helping him. You should go Brice," She glared at me before disappearing into the bathroom. I stood there not sure what to do and listened as the water turned on in the other room. After a minute, Annabeth ran out of the bathroom and into another room, coming out shortly carrying what looked like some brownies and a bottle with golden liquid in it. I packed up my schoolbag and left before she came out again. She didn't need me there anyways.

That night, I couldn't sleep at all worrying about Annabeth and her boyfriend, Percy. What had he done to get hurt like that? It didn't look like a normal injury. I wondered if perhaps he'd been attacked by someone, but if that was the case, then they would have called the cops on the attacker. I tossed and turned, the situation itself was strange. The only reason I could think of to not get help in that type of situation would be because they didn't want people to know. But that just made it feel more complicated, _what was Percy doing to get injured that other people couldn't know about_? _Gang violence? Or maybe he was doing something illegal when he got shot/ stabbed?_ I wondered all night thinking up the various possible explanations of that day's events. None of them looked good, and I became increasingly worrisome about who Annabeth was associating with.

* * *

At school on Monday, Annabeth avoided me, or maybe I was avoiding her. _What was I supposed to say to her?_ I wanted to talk to her about what happened on Saturday, but I had no idea how to even approach that topic with her. It felt like a sensitive subject, and I didn't want to anger her. Although Annabeth was beautiful and kind, I got the feeling that she wasn't someone you wanted to make mad. By the end of the day, I couldn't take it anymore. I had so many questions, and I needed answers. "Annabeth!" I called trying to reach her locker before she left.

She quickly turned the other direction and was about to walk off, but I was faster. I managed to stop her before she could get further away. "I need to talk to you," I told her. I'd decided that it would be best to be straightforward about this. She turned to face me but refused to make eye contact, so I continued talking. "I need to know what happened on Saturday. I know that it has nothing to do with me and that I shouldn't be concerned about it, but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm worried about you- ah- Percy. Yeah Percy. Was he alright? He was bleeding pretty bad. What happened?"

Annabeth hesitated for a moment before landing on an answer, "He's fine." She started off quietly. "It really wasn't as bad as it looked. It is completely healed now. You can barely even tell he was injured."

"But that's not possible, he looked like he was stabbed or shot or something. There was so much blood," I shook my head.

"I told you that it wasn't as bad as it looked. It was just a cut. He cut himself on something outside. Probably doing something stupid like jumping off a roof. Boys tend to do stupid stuff like that." Her gaze shifted nervously.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be offended or relieved. "So… he wasn't attacked by anyone? No gang violence or anything?"

Annabeth shook her head. She was looking at me now, inspecting my reaction almost as if she was analyzing how much I believed her. I set that thought aside for the moment.

"It just… it looked so bad. I thought surely it was some violent attack, but maybe I was just overreacting. I'm not the best with blood," I said quietly. I felt a bit embarrassed now. I probably looked ridiculous panicking over a cut.

"It's okay. Any normal person would have reacted that way," she paused in thought, "Perhaps you can come over today and we can finish up the project, since we got interrupted on Saturday?"

"Really?" I was unable to hide the smile that spread across my face at the thought of spending more time with Annabeth. It would be my second time going to her house this week.

"Yeah. Although, I have to warn you, Sally is probably going to force you to stay for dinner," She laughed, "Of course, it isn't really a bad thing. Sally is an excellent cook."

"I guess I better come hungry then," I laughed. Annabeth didn't talk about her family much. I wondered if Sally was her stepmom. "I have to head home first, but maybe I can come over around five?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Annabeth said before turning and walking down the hallway. I watched her every step until she disappeared out the door. Sighing, I lifted up my backpack to head out, but before I was able to take five steps, I got an eerie feeling like I was being watched. I turned my head and quickly looked about the hallway. A few lockers down from Annabeth's a girl, Alaina, was staring straight at me, a sly smirk on her face. Alaina was one of Annabeth's best friends and a well-known flirt. She was practically the complete opposite of Annabeth. How they were friends, I didn't know. As soon as my eyes met, Alaina's, my face grew bright red with the realization that Alaina had just caught me watching Annabeth.

"I- I was just- um- looking at the doors. They look different today." I scrambled for an excuse that didn't make me look stalkerish. "Did they paint them or something? Haha," I laughed nervously.

"Don't think so," Alaina grinned seeing through my ploy.

"Oh, really? Hmm," I quickly turned and left before she could say anything more. My face was bright red the entire way home.

* * *

Once again, I found myself standing outside the door to Annabeth's apartment, the door being held open by her boyfriend. "Hey Brice, what are you doing here?' Percy asked welcoming me inside. He looked healthy as if nothing had even happened on Saturday. _It's probably best not to mention it._

"Annabeth and I have a few more things to finish on our project. What about you?" I asked, wondering why he was at Annabeth's apartment again.

"What do you mean? I live here," Percy said as if it were obvious.

"Oh." Suddenly all the pictures of Percy on the walls made sense. This wasn't Annabeth's house, but Percy's. "I just assumed that since Annabeth invited me here, that it was her house," I said feeling stupid for the hundredth time today.

"Well, you weren't wrong. She is staying with us for now, but just for the rest of the school year," Percy said giving his classic smile.

"And, your parents are okay with your girlfriend living under the same roof," As soon as I said it my face got red at the implications of what my words meant. Percy's face got noticeably red too, but he remained fairly collected.

"Actually, my mom loves it. She seems to think that Annabeth is the one keeping me out of trouble. Which I guess is true." He grinned as if reliving fond memories. I wondered what sort of trouble he got into before meeting Annabeth. He probably still gets into quite a bit of trouble.

"Percy, come help Annabeth and me in the kitchen," I heard a woman's voice call.

"In a minute," Percy called back rolling his eyes. "They expect me to help cook, but when the food gets ruined it will be my fault. Come on, you can help too."

"I'm not really good at cooking," I informed him.

"Good, cause neither am I," He grinned and pulled me into the kitchen with him.

Inside the small kitchen, Annabeth was standing over the stove with her hair pulled back into a ponytail next to an older woman with brown graying hair. Both girls were smiling, as they prepared food for the meal. "Percy!"

"Right here Mom," Percy laughed.

"Oh gods, I didn't see you there," the older woman, possibly Sally, smiled. Her smile was bright and infectious. When she turned around, I noticed her bulging belly and realized that she was pregnant. "Who is your friend?"

"My name is Brice, it's nice to meet you, ma'am," I held my hand out to shake. Annabeth turned around now, realizing that I was there.

"Sally Blofis," she shook my hand. Her eyes, however, wondered over to Percy and Annabeth having a silent conversation. Both teenagers shook their head no and Sally nodded slightly in understanding.

"Brice is my partner on a project from school. He just came over so we could finish up," Annabeth filled them in on our progress on the project as Sally set us to work on different tasks: cutting vegetables, mixing ingredients, and the like. It was tiring helping prepare dinner in the overly crowded kitchen, but it was also a lot of fun. Annabeth did an exceptional job at every task Sally gave her, and I loved watching her work, although I had to try not to get too distracted by her. Compared to Annabeth, Percy and I looked like toddlers trying to cook for the first time.

Shortly after we finished cooking, a man in his forties came in the room looking tired from a long day of work. "What's going on in here?" he teased as he wrapped Sally in for a hug.

"Mom's working us all to death," Percy joked, but slid down in his seat at the glare his mom gave him for that statement.

"Who's this?" the man asked gesturing towards me. I wondered if he was Percy's father, but they didn't look anything alike. He seemed close to Sally though. _Perhaps a stepfather?_

"He's a friend from school," Annabeth told him.

"A friend as in… " He trailed off but seemed to be having a silent conversation with the others before nodding in understanding. I was confused and felt out of the loop. "I'm Paul Blofis, Percy's stepfather."

"Brice," I said shortly. _Stepfather, I was right._

"Well, let start eating," Sally said clapping her hands together. "You too Brice."

Dinner went by fairly easily. Everyone made light conversation telling about their day and asking me questions about my own life. I gave them the typical answers: live with my mom, no siblings, currently a senior in high school, yes I am attending college next year, majoring in philosophy, etc. The meal was over faster than I would have liked it to be. The food was absolutely amazing. Annabeth wasn't lying when she said Sally was a good cook. Everyone scarfed down the food until there was none left. I was surprised at how much Percy could eat. I was so stuffed that I couldn't eat another bite even if I wanted to.

After everyone had cleared their plate, Paul collected the dishes and brought them to the kitchen to be washed. Percy and his mom left to another room to give Annabeth and I space to work on our project. It didn't take long and we were finished. I felt a bit disappointed at the notion of having to leave, knowing that I wouldn't have an excuse to visit again. I was going to miss seeing Annabeth outside of school. She seemed so much more relaxed and comfortable here. Whether that was because she was home or because Percy was in the other room, I didn't know, but I enjoyed seeing this side of her.


	3. Chapter 3

In gym the next day, we were playing volleyball. Annabeth was incredible. She never once let the ball hit the ground. I watched after her as she followed Alaina into the dressing room after class laughing about something she'd said.

"Someone's got a crush" Jaden teased.

I ignored him; I didn't really feel up dealing with Jaden's provocations at the moment. Of course, my face didn't seem to understand the concept of ignoring and burned bright red at Jaden's words.

"Oooh, you do! You really like her don't you!" Jaden shouts, pleased with himself for discovering this.

"Brice likes someone? Who?" Eli joins in. He is grinning from ear to ear eager to be let in on this 'secret'.

"Annabeth! Brice has a little crush on Annabeth Chase," Jaden beams, "He has been watching her all period." I felt my face burn as he says it out loud, really feeling stalkerish this time.

"Oooh, someone's blushing." Eli taunts.

"Will you guys shut up!" I shout. But my pleas for them to quit only seemed to make them want to tease me more. I gave an exasperated sigh, realizing that they were not going to stop anytime soon. I opted to ignore them for now, but eventually I would have to find something to distract them from my love life, not that I had one.

* * *

I sat on the stairs leading into the building waiting on my friends. We were planning on going to one of our favorite New York pizza places after school to hang out. Jaden and Eli were running late because they were held after class to complete a missing assignment. Knowing they would take a while, I flipped open my pre-calculus textbook and began working on tonight's homework. I had just started on question five when a figure sat down next to me.

"Working on Mr. Neilson's homework?" Annabeth asked looking over my shoulder at the textbook in my lap.

"Just thought I'd get a head start on it while I waited," I responded. I tried to prevent a smile from spreading across my face, but it was difficult when on the inside I was ecstatic that Annabeth had sat by me and initiated the conversation. Usually I was the one pestering her about everything trying to talk to her.

"Sally liked having you over last night. She said it was a nice change to have someone normal over for once," Annabeth laughed fondly at a joke I didn't understand.

I just nodded, "I had fun. They seem like a nice family."

"Yeah, they're great," she agreed before falling into silence. Her hand twisted a ring around her necklace. I had never paid much attention to it before. It had many beads with different designs on them: a pine tree, a trident, the empire state building, etc. It also had a piece of coral and a college ring strung on it.

"What's that?" I asked her motioning to the ring she was twisting.

"Oh, the ring? It was my dad's," She stopped talking. For a minute I thought she wasn't going to say anymore, but after a moment, she started again. "He got it from Harvard, where he met my mom. He sent it to me a long time ago in an attempt to make me forgive him and return home. I wasn't going to, I had tried that before and it never worked out, but Percy talked me into it," She smiled now, "I guess, I like to keep the ring to remind me of that. That my dad does care and wants me a part of his family."

I looked down at my feet now, unsure what to say to that. Annabeth was opening up to me about her family, and I couldn't even think of a good response. I felt guilty for even bringing it up. The situation with her dad felt complicated, and I wasn't sure how much she was willing to share. "What did he want you to forgive him for?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Just… everything," Hah she laughed coldly, "I was young and a bit jealous. He got married to my stepmom and I wasn't happy about it. Especially when they had twins, I felt unwanted and blamed for everything. I ran away when I was seven. Met some friends who'd ran away too. Together we found this camp that accepted kids like us. Um, troubled kids with dyslexia or ADHD, ADD, type kids. Anyways, he wanted me to come home from the camp, which is why he sent the letter with the ring."

"You ran away when you were seven?" was all I could think to say. How can a child feel so unwanted that they run away at that age? Suddenly, everything I thought I knew about Annabeth shifted. She wasn't the prefect, beautiful, smart girl. She was so much more. She was a girl who'd overcome a lot of troubles with her family. She was jealous and stubborn, but willing to admit it. She had grown past her troubles and held onto a keepsake to remind her of all that.

"Yeah."

"Brice!" I heard a voice call. Annabeth and I turned to see Jayden come shoving through the doorway with Eli following closely behind him.

"Hey, you guys done?" I asked.

"Nah, Walters is cool. He let us go early if we turn in our essay tomorrow." Jaden said.

"Which means I will have mine in tomorrow and Jaden will have his done in another week," Eli grins jokingly, but we all knew it was true.

"A week is too soon. It'll be a minimum of two weeks of staying after school and at least one lunch detention before its done," Jayden smiles as if proud of his lack of effort into his schoolwork.

"How am I even friends with you two?" I tease shaking my head.

"Cause you love us," Jaden winks, "And we need you to raise our collective GPA."

"Ha, I'm sure that's why. Anyways, you guys ready to go? I'm hungry."

"I'm always ready for pizza," Eli answers.

I turn to Annabeth who was still sitting there listening to us. "Annabeth, you wanna come too?" I asked her, "We are going to get some pizza and hang out. It'll be fun."

Annabeth shook her head no, "Sorry, can't. I've got someone coming to pick me up."

I nodded in understanding. I waved goodbye as we left and she waved back a faint smile on her lips making my heart flutter in my chest. "You've got it bad," Jaden and Eli teased me the whole way to the pizza place.

* * *

I gazed out the window of the restaurant and watched as dark clouds slowly rolled in making the sky gray and dreary. A few drops of water began splashing onto the window as rain started pouring from the sky. Groaning at the unexpected downpour, "Did either of you guys happen to bring an umbrella today?" I asked my friends who were sitting on the booth across from me chowing down.

"No, didn't know it was supposed to rain," Eli said, his face stuffed with pepperoni pizza. He reached across the table and set another slice on his plate before continuing, "The news said it should be sunny all day."

"Guess the gods must be having a bad day, huh?" Jaden said.

"What?" both Eli and I said at the same time.

"You know, like the stories moms tell their kids in a thunderstorm. Zeus must be angry or something," He trailed off at the confused looks on our face, "You haven't heard of that before?"

"Not really, I mean maybe," I shook my head. I still didn't recall my mom telling me any stories like that. I'd heard the myths before, but never really connected them to the present, even for little kids.

"Oh, maybe it was just my mom then. Weird." He looked a bit unsettled by this. He seemed to glare silently out the window. Jaden had a naturally cheerful personality. He was always cracking jokes and teasing, so when he became serious and quiet, it was obvious that something was wrong.

"Jaden?"

"Hmm,"

"Everything okay?" I asked.

He didn't respond, just nodded his head slightly and continued watching the rainstorm outside. I knew there was no use pushing him into talking. If there was something wrong, then he would tell us eventually. Sighing, I turned back to my pizza. Eli and I continued talking until eventually Jaden got over whatever was ailing him and joined in. I smiled knowing that he would be fine when he jumped in the conversation talking about the new Star Wars movie coming out.

Shortly after the rain stopped, we left the restaurant with me trailing just behind a very animated Jaden and Eli. I zoned out of their conversation and let my thoughts drift. I wondered what that was with Jaden at the restaurant, why his mood suddenly changed? After hearing about Annabeth earlier that day, I had been thinking more about all the things I didn't know about people. The majority of people that I knew were from school, but I knew next to nothing about their families or home life. Even the people I was close to like Jaden and Eli, I didn't know much about. Jaden told me he was an only child, he lives with his mom and stepdad, but he never talks about his real dad. I don't think I've ever even been to his house; he always came to mine. I scowled at the steaming sidewalk with the realization that I knew so little about my best friend.


	4. Chapter 4

The next week passed by quickly without any significant altercations. I began noticing my surrounding peers more, especially Annabeth. The more I noticed about her, the more things I had to fall in love with. I knew it was hopeless for me as I watched Percy and his friends pick her up from school every day, but maybe one day I would have a chance. Maybe their relationship wasn't as perfect as it appeared to be. I just had to be patient. Although I didn't want Annabeth to be hurt by Percy, I would be there for her when it inevitably fell apart, as nearly all high school relationships do.

I tapped my pen on my desk impatiently as my AP Chemistry teacher passed out the lab assignment for today and assigned everyone partners. She wasn't a great teacher and was especially slow when it came to tasks like this. It would have been faster if she let everyone pick their own partner. I let my thoughts drift to ways I could get Annabeth to notice me more as Ms. Brown worked her way up the aisle to my desk. I tried to ignore the way her pants swooshed under her dress or the way she peered at the roll through the hair that covered her face as she slapped the lab papers on my desk. "You will be working with… let's see… I believe I put you with Alaina, yes, you and Alaina will be partners today."

I walked over to the brunette flirting with one of the football players. She was certainly different from Annabeth, not just in looks. Alaina had auburn hair and golden brown eyes that seemed to compliment her naturally tan complexion. She wore just enough make-up and stylish clothes to compliment her natural beauty, unlike Annabeth whose gray eyes clashed with her California girl looks and tried to downplay her beauty by wearing casual tee shirts and jeans. Both girls were pretty in their own right, but there was just something alluring about Annabeth that I didn't see in Alaina. "Ehem," I cleared my throat to get Alaina's attention, "Ms. Brown said that we were to work together."

"Mmkay," She said hopping off the desk she was sitting on. She held her hand out to me and I just looked at her, confused. "The papers. You don't expect me to do the lab from memory. I might be good, but not that good," she was grinning at my dumbfounded look as I shoved the papers into her hand, forgetting to keep one for myself. I followed her to the lab table as she looked over the instructions.

"Um, do you think I could look at one of those? I, um, kind of gave you mine." I said embarrassed at my mistake. She looked down at the papers in her hand just now realizing that she had two of the same and burst out laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, here you go," She said between laughs. Irritated and embarrassed, I glared down at my paper and tried ignoring Alaina as much as possible, which was rather difficult as she wouldn't shut up the whole time we worked. After a few minutes, she had calmed down enough to help me, when she wasn't getting distracted by the other students in my class.

"Okay, so now we just need to combine 10 milliliters of this with that yellow liquid in that beaker over there," I said pointing at the corresponding materials.

"Yup," Alaina said, moving the beaker closer to me. "Hey Brice?"

"Yeah?" I said not really paying her much attention.

"You're friends with Annabeth right?" She asked, "You've been to her house?"

I was so startled by her question that I nearly dropped the test tube I was holding. "What?" I asked turning to look at her.

"I know because she told me you guys were working on a project together or something. I don't really care; I was just wondering." Her face was the most serious I had ever seen it.

"Yeah, I guess I'd consider us friends," I said eying Alaina curiously.

"Annabeth… she doesn't have many friends at this school. She is friends with me and a few other girls, but she doesn't seem especially close to any of them. It worries me sometimes, especially because of the people she is friends with outside of school. Her boyfriend and his friends… they're trouble."

"Percy and his friends? What's wrong with them?" I asked cautiously, but in the back of my head I was reminded of my first impression of them and that night Percy was injured.

"There isn't anything wrong with them per se, but they are what teachers might call problem children. Her boyfriend alone has been kicked out of nearly every school he's ever attended, and he's attended over eight of them. The other kids, well, I don't know much about. She doesn't talk about them a whole lot, but every once in a while she lets something slip. None of it's good. I am worried about her associating with these kind of people."

I nodded as I took in this new information. I felt like a rock had settled in the pit of my stomach. There was really so much that I didn't know about Annabeth. Percy had seemed like a good guy, a bit strange, but he was well behaved and cheerful. He didn't seem like the kind of kid to be expelled from that many schools, other than maybe his tattoo. Suddenly Percy's words from my last visit flashed into my head 'Annabeth is the one keeping me out of trouble'. _Alaina might be telling the truth_ I realized with a shock.

"I was wondering if you'd noticed anything? If you could keep an eye out, make sure Annabeth isn't getting herself too deeply involved in something bad, that would really mean a lot."

"I haven't noticed anything worth mentioning. Annabeth is smart and I'm sure she wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her future. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out."

"Okay, yeah. Just watch for any signs that she might be too blind to see. You know how love is," Alaina said. She quickly perked back up after our conversation was finished and wondered over to the other side of the classroom to goof off with some friends. She seemed unfazed by the worry that was ailing her no more than two minutes ago. Groaning, I went back to work gathering data for Alaina to copy from me at the end of class as I thought over our conversation.

* * *

After school on Wednesday, Eli suggested we get pizza again. Although I wasn't particularly in the mood for pizza, I went with them knowing that Jaden would tease me if I didn't go. "Pizza is the greatest invention of mankind," Jaden said somehow fitting half a slice of pizza in his mouth.

We were sitting in our usual booth by the window overlooking a crowded New York street. Eli and Jaden sitting across from me seeing who could eat the most pizza while I nibbled on mine. My eyes wondered over to look out the window. Across the street, pushing their way through the crowd was a group of familiar faces. It was the friends that would come with Percy to pick Annabeth up sometimes. Recalling Alaina's request, I watched them as they waited at the crosswalk. They pushed each other playfully and were smiling like normal kids, but they were also very tense looking. They kept eying their surroundings as if they were looking for someone but didn't know who to expect. _Cops?_ I wondered, that seemed to fit based off the information from Alaina.

"Earth to Brice," Jaden waved his hand in front of my face interrupting my focus.

"What?" I said pushing his hand out of the way and turning to face my two friends.

"What were you looking at?" He asked peering out the window to get a glimpse of whatever had caught my attention.

"Nothing, what did you want?"

"We need you to figure out who won the contest. We had the same number of slices, but mine were bigger." Eli told me.

"They were not. Mine were definitely bigger, right Brice?" Jaden claimed.

"If it's the same number of slices then it's a tie," I was a bit annoyed with them now because outside the window, Annabeth's friends were nowhere to be seen. I had lost them.

"Eeeh, you're no fun. Let's get another pizza and then we'll see!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Seriously guys, another one?" I asked. I was stuffed with the few pieces I had, yet they could still eat more.

"Brice is right. I don't think I can eat anymore."

"Hah, then that means I win!" Jaden shook his fists in victory. Eli just rolled his eyes, but didn't argue anymore. I wondered if Annabeth's friends had moments like this where they just play around and relax. Every time I'd seen them picking her up they seemed on edge, just like they did earlier when they were crossing the street. _What are they really like?_ I wondered as the word _troublemakers_ reverberated in my head.

* * *

I couldn't get over Alaina's words, they kept echoing in my head like alarms. After tossing and turning over the issue, I decided that the best way to confirm for myself whether Annabeth was friends with good people would be to confront her about it directly. She had a full scholarship to some school in San Francisco and was in the top of our class, I couldn't let her waste all that hard work by hanging out with the wrong crowd. Annabeth was an amazing and intelligent girl, but even she could be deceived by being too naïve.

I didn't speak to Annabeth again until Friday. Up until that conversation with Alaina, I had been staying afterschool to talk to her until Percy got out of school and picked her up. I knew if I talked to Annabeth I would have to tell her about my concerns, so I had been putting it off by avoiding her. When it reached Friday, I knew I couldn't put it off anymore. The second the bell rang, I nearly sprinted out the door to the front of the school. After taking a moment to catch my breath, I spotted the tree that Annabeth usually waits under.

I was surprised to see Percy waiting under the tree instead of Annabeth with another familiar looking boy in a Rasta cap. They looked like they had been waiting there for a while as they were both sound asleep when I approached. "You're here early." I said to him.

He looked up at me a bit startled and confused from his nap. His eyes were a darker shade of green "What? Oh, yeah."

"Waiting on Annabeth?" I asked him even though the answer was obvious.

"Yeah. My school let out early," He grimaced slightly at this but it quickly turned into a sly smirk.

"Percy!" Annabeth came running up from behind me and hugged him. "What happened? You're here early. Everything okay?"

"Calm down Wise Girl, everything's fine. There was just a bit of a… flooding incident at school today so we got out early," Percy explained.

"Percy," Annabeth scolded. Her startling gray eyes looked as if they could shoot daggers at him.

"I swear it wasn't my fault…entirely. Paul is working it out with the principal so that I won't get into any trouble over it. Chiron is doing what he can too. I promise it won't affect me getting into New Rome next year."

"It better not. I swear you are hopeless Seaweed Brain," She smiled at him.

I was lost. The school flooding wasn't his fault _entirely_? That means it was at least partially his fault. _Is this why he gotten kicked out of so many schools? He impulsively does things like flood the school?_ I had to talk to Annabeth about this soon before I started making too many assumptions.

"Hey Grover, wake up Annabeth's here," Percy said as he waved a tin can in front of Grover's face.

"Food," Grover moaned.

"Yeah yeah, wake up Goat Boy, and we'll get you some food," Percy said.

A few minutes later Grover was fully awake. He formally introduced himself to me and Annabeth explained that I was a classmate friend of hers. Grover seem especially interested in that.

"Wait, you have normal friends? I didn't know you had friends outside camp." Grover said.

"Of course I have other friends Grover. I have to come here nearly every day," Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"No, I just meant… never mind. It's a good thing though. You should hang out with other people more often. It's not often you get to hang out with people outside camp, plus it will help camouflage your scent." Grover eyed me cautiously and sniffed the air a bit. I didn't really understand what he was talking about, but Percy and Annabeth both seemed to understand it fine. It was strange.

"You think it'll hide me?" Percy asked doubtfully.

"No, not you. But Annabeth maybe. I don't think anyone can cover up your scent anymore," Grover laughed a bit, but it sounded fearful and nervous. He began to get very fidgety and looked around at the other students much more than before. "The same reason you guys went to different schools applies here, except the scenarios changed."

"I get it. If we stay close to mortals, it will be harder to tell which one of us is which." Annabeth explained.

"I'm sorry, but I am so confused. What are you talking about?" I broke down and asked. As hard as I tried, I couldn't keep up with their conversation.

They all grew silent and looked at each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes.

"You know nothing," Percy snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. Things just kept getting weirder.

Percy looked disappointed and snapped his fingers a few more times as if expecting something to happen.

"Looks like someone needs lesson from Thalia, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughed, "You want to join us, Brice? We are going to get something to eat."

"Burgers. And then we are stopping at the beach, I need to talk to my dad if he's available," Percy added.

Annabeth nodded and looked at me questioningly. "Yeah, I'll go."

This would give me a good opportunity to spend time with Annabeth and learn about her friends outside of school. I'd be able to look more into Alaina's story.


	5. Chapter 5

We rode in Percy's car which for some reason had some dents in the hood that looked strangely like hoof prints. Annabeth rode shotgun while Grover and I sat in the back. Grover seemed nice; he didn't strike me as dangerous like some of the other friends. Grover seemed more like the type to get bullied in school, and I doubted that he could do much harm. If anything, he was probably more like Annabeth and kept Percy out of trouble. He kept bleating and telling Percy to slow down or hit the brakes. Now I understood why that goth looking girl thought Percy should have his license revoked. Although I think he would be a decent driver if he followed the speed limit.

We arrived shortly at a small diner that claimed to sell the best burgers on the east coast. We sat at a booth next to a window overlooking the beach. The food smelled greasy and delicious. Annabeth and Percy sat across from me holding hands. Everyone had ordered a burger except Grover who said he wasn't hungry, although the way he kept eying his napkin said otherwise.

"You're going to love these," Percy said, "My dad took me here after I got back and although it's a little rundown, it has really good food."

"After you got back from where?" I asked. _Juvie?_ The darker side of me thought.

"Europe," Annabeth answered. Grover seemed to get more fidgety and uncomfortable with the conversation.

"That must have been fun," I said. I needed to find a way to steer the conversation towards information that I needed to know.

"I guess that's one way of putting it," Percy said more towards Annabeth then to me. He squeezed Annabeth's hand in a reassuring manner.

"So your dad took you here?" Annabeth asked as she looked around the small diner inquisitively.

"Yeah, to thank me for taking care of 'great grandmother' and apologize for disappearing instead of doing more to help us."

"Your dad disappeared?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Yeah. It's not like he meant to through. There are rules … plus there was the whole schizophrenic thing going on…." He murmured that last part. "Um, anyways, he's never really been around much, but he does what he can," Percy explained to me.

"That must be hard to not have your dad around," I was sincere when I said it. I didn't know much about this kid, but I knew it must suck to barely know your own father.

"Yeah, but at least mine tries." He said sullenly, but quickly tried to change the conversation to a happier tone, "Besides I have Paul and he's pretty cool. Oh, look our food's coming."

"Here you are, three burgers and four waters. Oh and Percy?" The waitress smiled at him.

Everyone at the table nearly jumped out of their seat when she said Percy's name. Annabeth reached for something at her side and Percy pulled a pen out of his pocket as if it could protect him. I wondered if the waitress knew him since she knew his name, but everyone's reaction said otherwise.

The waitress didn't even react and her eyes glazed over, "Your father is waiting for you at the port when you finish your meal."

She turned around and left. Percy's expression darkened but his eyes didn't move from the spot the waitress had been standing. "Percy?" Annabeth said concerned.

She looked pretty startled herself. Grover sat next to me chewing on his napkin now, murmuring to himself. "I'm sure it's nothing. He probably knew I needed to ask him something is all." Percy sounded like he was still trying to reassure himself.

"But to have him summon for you?" Grover rocked in his seat nervously, "It can't be good."

"Wait, summon? Why are you guys so worried? You're the one that wanted to talk to your father." I said.

Percy shook his head, "There is nothing to worry about. Everything is going to be fine." But he didn't sound completely sure.

"I'm going with you," Grover said, " I won't let you go alone. It's my job to pro-"

"Yeah, I know. You're coming with me goat boy," Percy grinned before digging into his burger.

I took a few bites of my burger as well—which was insanely delicious— before I realized that they never answered my question. "Why would Percy's dad wanting to meet with him be something to worry about?" I asked.

Annabeth, who hadn't touched her food, broke out of her deep thought to answer, "Ah well, Percy's dad is an extremely important person. He is really powerful and influential. The only reason he would want to talk to Percy is if there is something major going on," She glared daggers at Percy at the last part.

I was stunned. "So your dad is like some millionaire entrepreneur or something?" I asked in disbelief.

"Something like that," Percy mumbled through a bite of food.

"If your dad is so important than why don't you live in a mansion and go to some fancy school? Like shouldn't you be training to take over the company and all that stuff?" My questions came out harsher than I meant for them too, but from what I'd seen of Percy's life, he didn't look like someone that came from a rich family.

"I live with my mom," He said matter of factly, as if that explained everything. Hasn't he heard of a thing called a child support check? I waited for him to continue, "Dad isn't allowed to interfere directly in my life; there is some sort of rule against that. Besides, even if he was allowed, my mom wouldn't accept any of it."

"There is a law against your dad seeing you?" I asked. The only law I could think of that could do that were restraining orders.

"Not a law exactly. He just isn't supposed to see me. He is married, and his relationship with my mom was a secret for a long time. The first time I met him was when I was twelve. I wasn't his only kid either. I met my half-brother when I was around thirteen. I think they just don't want anyone giving any of their kid's special treatment, but it does make things difficult sometimes," He winced.

I just nodded. I was at a loss for words. That sounded awful. How could he stand to be around his father? I would be so angry with him, but Percy seemed to shrug it off as if it were no big deal.

"Hey Percy? Shouldn't we get going?" Grover asked, "We shouldn't keep him waiting."

Percy nodded and turned to kiss Annabeth goodbye, "I'll be back soon."

I watched with jealousy as Annabeth stared off after them full of concern. It wasn't until they were out of sight that I felt a cold chill come over me as a figure entered the room, but I couldn't make my eyes focus enough to tell who it could be. Annabeth's expression darkened and she sunk down in her seat. She warily gripped her hand on at her belt.

"Something wrong?" I asked her.

"It's nothing," She answered, but she kept glancing around the restaurant analytically, as if planning an escape.

"So, um, you and Percy, huh?" I said, not really knowing why. I had forgotten what it was like to be alone with Annabeth and my nerves made me say stupid things.

"Yeah, what about us?"

"Nothing, he just doesn't seem like the kind of guy you'd be interested in," I told her.

"What?"

"No offense, but he doesn't seem good enough for you. It seems like he has a lot of issues with his father and with school," I said, trying to force the conversation I'd been planning on having with her today.

"I'm going to stop you right there. First of all, you barely know him and you don't get a say in who I date. I know you aren't trying to be rude, but you are. Secondly, Percy may not be perfect, but he is everything I need. If his 'issues' were deal breakers, then no one would be able to date me either because I have very similar issues myself." She said with her gray eyes staring intently at mine, "Don't judge him or me when you barely know us."

Her words silenced me quickly. _Barely know us?_ My heart felt like it'd been shot. If Annabeth thought that I barely knew her, then I hardly even qualified as a friend. I felt a wave of depression wash over me with her words. _Why had I brought this up? I should have just minded my own business_ , but I couldn't help it. It was too late now. "I- I need to get some air."

I stood up to go but was stopped by Annabeth's hand on my arm. "Wait!" she warned. I looked over in the direction her eyes kept looking, but only saw a few costumers eating their food.

"What? It's not like I have a reason to be here anyway. Like you said, we barely know each other," I said shrugging her arm off me as I forced my way out the door. Tears welled in my eyes. I was angry, but not at Annabeth, at myself. Everything Annabeth had said was right and I was acting like a baby. I was jealous and looking for any reason to convince her to break off her relationship with Percy. I barely knew him and I had labeled him a troublemaker based on one person's words.

I felt a presence behind me as I walked down the empty beach. An eerie feeling came over me as I realized that it had been following me ever since I left the restaurant. I had been so lost in thought that I hadn't noticed. I turned around to face the person, but was shocked at what I saw.

It was a person, but then again it wasn't. I had a hard time getting my eyes to focus, their appearance seemed to keep changing. It flashed back and forth from a green skinned monster with tentacle like feet to a beautiful woman. Whatever it was, hissed at me with a snakelike tongue that was definitely not human. Her yellow serpent-like eyes glistened in delight at the terrified look on my face. I stood there frozen in fear as the woman lifted a bronze spear? No, that's not right, she held an umbrella up and swung it at me. Everything was moving too fast for me to keep up. I wasn't sure whether I had dodged the umbrella or if it passed through me, but considering the latter is impossible, I must have miraculously dodged it.

"What? How did you?" the woman shrieked. She looked at her weaponized umbrella in confusion.

Using her confusion to my advantage, I took off running, not particularly caring where. Now, I might have mentioned not being the best person to compare physical traits to, and, well, you'll soon understand why. Running is hard in general. Between the heavy breathing, sore muscles, and the painful aching of your body screaming at you to stop all movement and just collapse on the ground, needless to say, I have never been a fan. I was always one of the slowest guys in my gym classes, falling just ahead of the few guys in the back that never try, so I wasn't surprised when the monster woman caught up to me. The sand flying beneath my feet didn't make it any easier to run. The woman grabbed me with her claw-like fingers and flung me to the ground. I got a mouthful of sand and rolled over as the woman kicked me in the ribs, causing me to cry out in pain. Her kick felt like I had been slugged my a 100 lb baseball bat. My vision flashed in and out as she continued to beat me until she was sure I wouldn't move.

"Why?" I croaked. "I don't have anything."

"Heh, poor boy. Doesn't even know what's going on," The woman flashed a smile showing of her razor sharp teeth, "You can thank your little friends for this." I felt her tongue slither beside my ear as she whispered "Little mortal," before shoving my face into the sand. I squirmed under her grasp, but the pain in my ribs was enough to halt my movements. I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the pain that just seemed to worsen with every breath. Shortly, the woman let go of me and I rolled back over spitting the sand out of my mouth.

She turned and grabbed something off to the side. My vision kept blurring so I couldn't see what she was doing. I tried moving while she wasn't looking but stopped as excruciating pain shot through my body. Over my head, the woman now held a metal rod that it looked like she'd just torn off of somewhere. She grinned down at me. "Now now, don't look so terrified. It's not as if I'm going to eat you. I am just going to kill you a little bit; that'll teach your friends to try and trick me."

I barely had enough time to move before she shoved the pole down straight into me. I gasped in pain as the taste of blood filled my mouth. My hand clasped at the spot where the pole was sticking through my body. _This is how I am going to die_ I thought.

I heard Percy's voice shout, "Hey Lizard face! Take this!" before I was drenched by an ocean wave. I heard faint shouts and the sounds of weapons clashing together before I gave in to the darkness and passed out.

* * *

 **Right about here is where I start disliking my story. I am not very good at writing action scenes (as you can tell) I would like to go back and rewrite this scene, but unfortunately I do not have the time right now. I feel bad publishing a story that I am not fully satisfied with, but I've had this document on my computer for a year and I thought I should put it out there. It is only my first fic and it can't be the worst one out there. Anyways, if anyone has any tips for action scenes then let me know because that is definitely something I am lacking.**


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up in a white room in an itchy hospital bed. The florescent lighting overhead was blinding and made my head pound in pain as I tried to inspect my surroundings. There was gauze wrapped tightly around my probably broken ribs and thick medical pads covered the entire right side of my torso. The concerned face of my friends and family surrounded me. "He awakens!" Jaden said with forced cheerfulness.

I rubbed my head trying to recall how I got here, but my memory was hazy and it hurt to think about it. "What happened?" I asked.

"You don't remember?" Eli asked me. He looked concerned and like he hadn't slept all night. _How long was I out?_ I wondered.

I shook my head and motioned for them to explain. "Someone found you passed out on the beach nearly bleeding to death from a stab wound. They called the ambulance and it took you here. We aren't really sure what happened. You had eight broken ribs and they had to perform surgery to close the wound and stop any internal bleeding. You could have been killed! You don't remember anything that happened?"

I shook my head overwhelmed by everything. I leaned back into my pillow. I felt disturbed that couldn't remember what'd happened; it's a pretty important piece of information for me to just forget. The harder I tried to think about it though, the more my head hurt until eventually I had to give up. My mom informed me that she was going to tell the nurse that I was awake and slipped out the door.

"Try to think through what happened," Eli suggested after she left.

"Okay. Um, I was with Annabeth. She'd asked me to go with her, Percy, and their friend Grover to the beach and get something to eat. Percy and Grover left to go to the pier and then I- I made Annabeth mad, so I ditched her at the restaurant. That was when I was attacked." I paused trying to remember what my attacker looked like, but I couldn't remember much. The person was a mere blob in my memory. I couldn't even recall what gender they were. All I could remember clearly was my fear and pain. Suddenly I recall Percy's voice shouting just before I passed out 'Hey Lizard face! Take this!'. _Percy had been there when I was getting attacked!_ The blob that I had been remembering quickly changed forms to where it resembled Percy more and more. I was stunned. _Had Percy been my attacker?_ The longer I thought about it, the more it made sense and the more memories seemed to fall in place like I had cleaned my mind of its fog.

"What's wrong? Did you remember something?" Jaden asked me as he scooted up to the edge of his seat anxiously.

"I think…" I hesitated, something about what I was about to say felt wrong in my throat, "I think Percy is the one who attacked me." My voice got quieter as I spoke.

"Holy crap," Eli said, "Isn't that Annabeth's boyfriend?"

"Holy crap is right!" Jaden shouted jumping out of his seat, "I'm gonna beat the snot out of him if I see him again. He nearly killed you!"

"What'd you do to make him so mad? Kiss Annabeth or something?" Eli asked rather calmly about the whole scenario.

"No, I didn't do anything. I swear." I claimed, but Eli was right. It didn't make sense that I would be attacked without a reason. I raked through my brain trying to find a reason for him to attack me.

"You sure you didn't do anything? It's hard to believe that anyone would beat someone to death without a reason," Eli eyed me incredulously.

"Yeah. I'm sure." I said.

"It doesn't matter if you did anything or not. That Percy guy had no right to do that to you. He's a monster and he is going to pay for what he did," Jaden swore.

"Thanks man, but I think we should just stay away from him for a while," I told him. I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach when he said the word _monster_. I am not sure why, but something about that word resonated heavily inside me and I felt like screaming _That's exactly right! A monster did this to me!_

My mom came back in with the nurse shortly after. The nurse checked a few things now that I was fully conscious and after a few hours had passed she informed me that I was free to go.

"If you feeling up to it," my mom stated in the same matter of fact way that she discussed everything in my life, "You can go back to school on Tuesday. You've missed a lot of classes and I don't want you to fall behind."

"Aren't I supposed to wait a week?" I said irritably. She never seemed to care about me in the same loving manner that most mothers do. She always focused on the practical side of everything. I nearly died and she says I can go back to school tomorrow!

"Don't give me that attitude. You're the one who got yourself in that situation, don't blame me for not feeling sorry for you. This is why I stressed the importance of hanging out with good people. Why I spend the money to send you to a good school. I don't want you getting caught up in street violence, but then you go and hang out with random kids from other schools without telling me first." She shook her head in disappointment.

I turned to gaze out the window as we drove through the streets of New York back to my house. Rain drops splattered against the window which just made the situation feel worse. I felt like everything was wrong. My mom was disappointed in me. Percy probably wanted me dead. Annabeth was mad at me. Life was unfair.

* * *

I sighed and trudged up the stairs to the school. My body still ached despite all the pain medicine I was on. My ribs were tightly bound, but still hurt if I moved around too much or did so much as laugh. I sighed feeling weak and pathetic. Although I had been disappointed about returning to school so soon, I wanted to see Annabeth. I wondered how much she knew about my situation. She hadn't gone to visit me in the hospital, so I assumed she didn't know. I didn't want Annabeth to see me as a wimp, but she had to learn the truth about Percy. I might not have known for sure whether Percy was a bad guy on Friday, but I knew better than anyone now.

The first thing I saw as I walked in the building was Annabeth standing by her locker talking to her friends. Alaina turned and waved at me. Annabeth, who'd been smiling with the rest of them, noticed and turned toward me. Something about her expression was troubled. I caught her eye, and she excused herself and walked over toward me. I noticed Alaina wink at me before continuing with her conversation. "Are you okay?" Annabeth asked concerned.

I felt my face heat up at the knowledge that she was worried about me. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I'm so sorry about what happened. Percy told me everything that happened. By the time I got there, you were gone. We tried looking for you, but I didn't have a way to call you or know where they may have taken you. If I had known…" She trailed off and shook her head and muttered something unintelligible under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'They don't usually attack mortals'.

"It's fine Annabeth," I said reassuringly, "There's no way you could have known Percy would do something like that."

"What?" She sounded confused like this was the first she was hearing of Percy's involvement.

"Percy was the one who attacked me after I left the restaurant," I said gesturing to my injuries.

"That's what you saw?" she asked doubtfully. Her voice sounded surprised and yet wary at the same time.

"That's what happened," I insisted, "Annabeth, listen to me. You need to stay away from him. I might have been wrong about him before, but I know now. He is dangerous and unpredictable. You deserve far better."

Annabeth stared down at the ground as if calculating her different options of dealing with me. None of the things I said were words she wanted to hear, but they were necessary. I just hoped she realizes that. "Thank you Brice. I know you mean well, but I don't think you understand. We live in two different worlds that you can't even begin to comprehend. Percy isn't a bad guy. He would never have done that to you. I think you should rethink what you saw that night."

I was stunned by her dedication to Percy. Even after everything he did to me, she still believed in him. As personable as he seemed upfront, I knew there was a darkness within him, and this was where I drew the line. I could rethink Friday's events a thousand times and it would come back the same. Percy Jackson was dangerous and I had to find a way to prove it to Annabeth before she gets pulled in too deep.

* * *

It has been two weeks since I last spoke to Percy, or Annabeth for that matter. We were both ignoring each other, I guess. Originally, I decided it would be best to back off Annabeth until I figured out the situation with Percy, but I have to admit, it hurts to have Annabeth ignore me back. I'd learned so much about her, yet over the past two weeks, we'd become strangers.

"Hey, man, what's wrong? Your injuries aren't hurting you again are they?" Jaden asked me as he pulled up a chair. It was seventh period, and we were supposed to be working together on problems out of our grammar book, but I wasn't feeling it.

"No, they're getting better," I told him, "I was just thinking."

"'bout what?" He asked. His eyes were focused on the workbook, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration due to his dyslexia.

"Have you ever stopped talking to someone, only to regret it afterwards?" I asked

"Hmm, is this about Annabeth?" Jaden asked me.

I nodded, "We were beginning to get so close, but after Percy… I know that it's best if I stay away. I don't want to get killed, but on the other hand, I don't want to end things with Annabeth. I don't expect our relationship to get past the friend zone, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be her friend," I sighed, the situation felt hopeless. How could I be her friend, while not angering her boyfriend, "What do I do?"

Jaden looked at me, his usually playful appearance taking on a serious one, "I can't really answer that for you. As your friend, I want you to stay away so that you'll be safe, but I also want to support you. If you want to be her friend again, I suggest talking to her about the dance on Friday." Then he turned and winked at me, "Girls like that kind of thing."

"Haha, I'm trying not to anger her boyfriend, remember?" I laughed.

"I guess I'll just have to teach you some fighting moves then," He laughed. Pretty soon we were both laughing and I was no longer worried about Annabeth. I had good friends, and whether Annabeth wanted to be one of them, was her decision.

After class, I saw Annabeth by her locker talking to Alaina. After building up my nerves, I decided to take Jaden's advice and ask her if she was going to the dance. Although I had no plans to go with Annabeth as a date (she had Percy for that), I was hoping to see her there. I wanted to see her all dressed up. _I bet she would look gorgeous_ I thought. Before I could get any words out, she spoke, "I already told you Alaina, I am not going to the stupid dance!"

 _Whelp, there goes that idea_.

"Whaa? But you have to! I won't take no for an answer," Alaina whined.

"You don't exactly have a choice," Annabeth smirked.

"Brice!" Alaina called, noticing me standing behind them, " Don't you think Annabeth should go to the dance?"

Annabeth turned around to face me, with a glaring look daring me to take Alaina's side. My face flushed red, "Um, it's her decision, but I was kind of hoping to see you there." I looked directly at Annabeth at that last part, and if it was possible for my face to get any redder, then I'm sure it did. She didn't seem to notice though.

"Why would you want to see me there?" She asked. Alaina smirked in the background and made goo goo faces at me. I ignored her.

"I just, um… I dunno. I felt bad about not talking to you in a while and thought maybe we could talk at the dance… or something," _Come on Brice, you can do better than that_ I chastised myself.

Annabeth seemed to consider this for a moment, "Yeah okay. I'll talk to Percy about going. Maybe he can explain himself to you?"

"No, no. That's okay. I don't want to cause any trouble," I said.

"Wait! Does that mean you're going?" Alaina squealed excitedly.

"Yeah, that's what that means," Annabeth nodded, but she continued looking at me with worry. It was evident that she still believed Percy, but perhaps that means he won't do anything in front of Annabeth. At least, that's what I hoped.


	7. Chapter 7

I looked around for Annabeth in the crowd. I had been here for at least an hour, and I still hadn't seen her. I was beginning to think she wasn't going to come. I began to tug at my tie, feeling a little ridiculous in my suit. I turned to see Annabeth standing in the doorway. She was wearing a beautiful sleeveless grey dress that touched the floor. Her hair was pulled back around her face and fell down her back in lush blonde ringlets. She wore no makeup from what I could tell, but she looked stunning. When she walked forward into the gymnasium, I noticed the tip of her old tennis shoes under her dress. She had her hand linked with Percy's, who was standing next to her in jeans and a blue-green dress shirt.

As they walked in, I heard Annabeth say to Percy, "Doesn't this remind you of something?"

Percy paused to look around, his face lit up when he recalled what Annabeth was referring to, "Yeah, that dance in middle school before we got Nico and… and Bianca."

Their faces both grew grim in despair at the mention of the second name. "You know that wasn't your fault. Not even Nico blames you anymore."

Percy nods, but remains silent.

"Remember how I had to force you to dance with me? You were so awkward" Annabeth said teasingly.

"Oh haha, I wasn't that bad," He said wrapping her in his arms.

"Oh really? 'Well who should I ask?'" She grinned mocking Percy's voice. Percy's cheeks grew red at this.

"I don't sound like that!" Percy objected, but Annabeth just laughed harder. "Fine, do you want to dance with me Wise Girl?"

"Naturally, Seaweed Brain."

I watched this interaction between them with interest. Annabeth acted differently around Percy, more relaxed and free, and Percy acted differently around her. He didn't seem so much like a delinquent, but a dorky and awkward teenager in love. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was a good guy, and I did think that for a while, but not anymore. I watched them disappear into the crowd of dancing bodies. I contemplated approaching them many times, but I kept talking myself out of it. I decided it was best to approach Annabeth after she was alone, after all, my last encounter with Percy didn't end very well.

I wondered around keeping an eye on them for the remainder of the night, but never got a chance to speak to Annabeth. I wondered if she even knew I was there or that I purposely rented this tux tonight in case I saw her. Sighing, I sat down at a table near where they were selling some waters and snacks.

"Hey, Brice," said a voice beside me.

I jumped, and turned to see who spoke. Alaina, Annabeth's friend, was standing beside me. "Hi, Alaina."

She plopped down beside of me. She was wearing a sparkly pink dress and stiletto heels. "God, these shoes are killing me!" she complained, kicking them off.

"That's what you get for wearing shoes that tall," I said callously, "You should have worn tennis shoes like Annabeth."

"Hmm?" she tilted her head smiling slyly at me.

"What?" I asked confused by the sly grin she was giving me.

"Nothing, nothing," she responds playfully. It was obvious that she knew more than she was letting on.

"Tell me"

"You like Annabeth," She teased. I was taken aback, that was not what I expected her to say. My face grew warm, and I was sure that I looked like a tomato by now.

"Wh-what makes you think that?" I asked laughing nervously.

"I could help you, you know?'

"What?"

"Oh come on. Don't be so dense," she said authoritatively, "I'm offering you my help."

"Why would you do something like that?" I asked.

"Dunno," she jumps out of her seat and faces me, her bare feet hitting the gym floor. A big smile breaks across her face, "It'll be fun."

"I'm not sure. I mean, Annabeth really seems to like Percy. I don't think I am even on her radar." I told her. I was happy that Alaina wanted to help me, but I just didn't think it would work. "Besides, I'm happy just being friends."

"Don't be such a pessimist. You're good looking, firm build nice brown hair. You just need to change your methods," she said. "That's where I come in!"

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked doubtfully.

"You'll see," a mischievous look flashed across her face before she picked up her shoes and skipped off back into the crowd. I felt hope growing in me with this new development, although something about it didn't set right with me. Little did I know, I was about to find out why.

* * *

After the dance had ended, people poured out of the building searching for their ride. I made my way out slowly, I would have to take the bus anyways. I saw Alaina hop in a car with a couple other girls from our school. She waved at me and I rolled my eyes. She was such a nuisance, but at least she was going to try and help me.

I noticed Percy and Annabeth making their way toward me. I tried to hide in the crowd, but it was too late. "Brice!" Annabeth called.

I was too late. I turned around to face her with a fake smile, "Hey, you came after all."

"Yeah, I thought you wanted to talk, but you didn't talk to me all night," Annabeth said as she crossed her arms.

"I guess I just didn't see you," I lied. I felt guilty lying to her like that, but it wasn't as if I could tell her I'd been watching her all night. That would just sound creepy.

Annabeth didn't look convinced, "Anyways, about what happened on the beach-"

"I wasn't the one who did that to you," Percy blurted out interrupting her.

"Percy! I am trying to explain this slowly," Annabeth scolded him.

"Well, I don't want him to blame me for this. I might have done a lot of things, but this one had nothing to do with me. Although I guess, technically, it did have something to do with me but not-"

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth said.

"Annabeth, stop. You don't need to convince me. Besides, Percy just admitted that it was partially his fault. Even if he can't take full responsibility for it himself, I know what I saw," I told her before turning and walking away. There was no way I could mend our friendship while Percy was around anyways.

"Brice, wait!" Annabeth called, "Just listen to us!"

I continued walking. I didn't need to hear Percy's excuses.

"This is why I told you to let me do all the talking, Seaweed Brain. He already thinks you tried to kill him. He won't listen to you," I heard Annabeth scolding Percy from behind me.

* * *

Monday morning, I received a text from Alaina telling me to meet her in the hallway during lunch. I assumed she was wanting to discuss her plan to help me get together with Annabeth. I sighed as I stared at the bright phone screen. Unfortunately, I didn't see Annabeth liking me at any point in the near future. I couldn't even figure out how to solve things with Percy, which made getting together with Annabeth practically impossible. I knew that I should stay away, but the idea of Annabeth liking me was too irresistible. _I had to at least try, right?_ I hoped Alaina would be useful.

I met her in the hallway after sneaking away from Jaden and Eli. They would make fun of me so much if they knew I was resorting to this. "You wanted to talk to me?" I asked Alaina. I didn't expect anyone to walk by since it was lunch hour, but I kept my voice to a whisper just in case.

"I was wondering if you had any ideas for breaking Percy and Annabeth apart?" Alaina said, twirling a strand of her auburn hair between her fingers.

"You called me all the way out here to ask if I had any ideas?" I asked incredulously, "Weren't you supposed to be the one with the ideas?"

"Umm, yes?" She said it like a question, "I have an idea, somewhat. I just don't think it's any good."

"An idea to break them up? Or to get Annabeth to like me?" I asked skeptically.

"Both," She stated.

"I don't know about this. What if she finds out? Besides, it would feel wrong to start a relationship with her knowing I purposely tricked her into breaking up with her boyfriend."

"You aren't tricking her. I am. Besides, she will never be interested in you while she is still with Percy, and you and I both know that he is bad news. I mean have you _seen_ his tattoo? Not to mention what he did to you," Alaina said.

"Yeah, I know," I grimaced, "I'll think about it." I couldn't afford to be rash about something as important as this, especially with my morals (and my life) at stake.

"Ugh, you're such a wimp," Alaina complained, "Look here's my 'plan'. I will stop by Annabeth's apartment to 'hang out'. While I am there then I can set something up to make her mad at Percy. I just haven't sorted out what to set up yet."

"And you want me to think of something?" I asked hesitant about this plan.

"Duh. Are you always this slow? Look, right now the best I can think of is cornering Percy into making a move on me while Annabeth is out of the room so she can catch him trying to cheat on her, but I really don't want to do that. Not that I couldn't, I mean, who could resist this," she grinned and gestured at her figure.

"What's stopping you then?"

"It just seems a little dirty to me. This whole thing is, but I wanted something more low key, something that I would have less involvement in. But I will do it if I have to." Her golden brown eyes met mine with determination.

"Why would you do all that for me?" I asked, "You'd risk completely jeopardizing your friendship for me."

She shrugged, "Annabeth's better off with someone else. You don't hang out with her as much, so you wouldn't know, but I've been noticing some strange things happening around her when she is with him for a while now." She paused for a moment before adding, "I'm well aware that if we go through with this then I will be doing something terrible that will probably hurt Annabeth deeply, but you can't betray me. You will need to be there to pick up the pieces when it ends. Do you think you can handle that?"

It was rare to see her so serious. It was clear that she hadn't just done this on a whim. This is something that she had been thinking over for a long time. She wanted better for Annabeth and was willing to sacrifice her morals to help Annabeth. "Yeah," I replied, "I can do that."


	8. Chapter 8

I contemplated my decision for several days following my conversation with Alaina. I was fully aware that I was behaving in a cowardly way by debating whether I should back out or not. Especially after promising Alaina that I wouldn't. It wasn't until Thursday's AP World History class that I felt sure that removing Percy from Annabeth's life was the right decision.

Thursday morning, I walked into Ms. Benson's class, early as usual. The majority of the seats were empty as most people would slide into class at the last second. I made my way through the aisle, and as I walked by Annabeth's desk, I called out to her "Hey, Annabeth."

She looked up from the book she was reading. "Oh, hey Brice," she smiled at me before turning back to her book.

I felt proud of myself. Personally, I think I sounded pretty confident saying hi to her like that. Alaina had been coaching me over the phone the past few nights. She would annoyingly call me at eleven o'clock at night to make sure I wasn't about to back out and that I was laying the proper 'preparatory' work with Annabeth. Which to her meant a lot of flirting, getting past the friend zone, touching, etc., but to me, it meant getting back on good terms with her. Our weeks of silence had really messed up our friendship, and I knew that had to be fixed first before it could go anywhere else.

I sat down at my desk, admiring Annabeth from afar. After all I'd been through the past month and half, Annabeth was still so beautiful. Her curly blonde hair was pulled into her usual ponytail, although a bit messier than usual with golden dust mixed in. Her calculating gray eyes were focused on her book. I watched as her hand reached to turn the page and I noticed a bruise on her wrist. I was shocked. It looked pretty bad. It wasn't blue and purple yet, but it was getting there. It must have been fresh by the red tone of the bruise. Inspecting the rest of her arm, I noticed many other marks. Many of them looked like old scars, scratches, and faded bruise marks.

"Annabeth! What happened to your arm?" I blurted out.

"Hmm?" She looked down at her arms to see what I was referring to, "Oh this? It's just a bruise."

She said it so matter-of-factly, as if she got baseball sized bruises on her wrist all the time. Plus something seemed odd about the way she spoke, almost as if she was trying too hard to sound nonchalant about it, worried that I might make a big deal out of it.

"It's more than a 'just a bruise' Annabeth. Something must have happened," I spoke without thinking, the words pouring out of my mouth before I could think about them. "No one is hurting you, right?" I think she noticed the serious tone in my voice because this time she closed her book and turned to face me.

She paused for a moment, gathering her words before she spoke, "No. No one is hurting me. I must have just hit my arm too hard on something. Honestly, I don't even remember getting it, maybe in gym class," She laughed, but something about her story rang false to me. "I bruise easily," she added.

"Are you sure?" I persisted, "You can tell me anything. That's not your only one, there are other older marks and scratches on you. It's not Percy is it?"

"Gods no," She laughed at the idea of Percy hurting her, "Percy would never do this to me."

I nodded, but was unsure whether to believe her or not. I had never been in this situation before. Annabeth pulled a tattered jacket out of her bag and put it on, the long sleeves covering her arms.

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine," She smiled reassuringly at me.

I nodded again, but didn't meet her eyes. If anyone was hurting her, then I would protect her. I refused to sit by and do nothing while the girl I cared about got hurt.

* * *

I tossed the ball up in the air and caught it. I had been doing this for hours. Staring at the ceiling just tossing the ball. I was never very good at dealing with nervous energy, and today, I definitely had reason to be nervous. Today was the day that Alaina was supposed to initiate our plan.

"Would you please cut that out?" Jaden asked. He was getting irritated with me, but I couldn't help it, I was worried about what might happen. Today, my future with Annabeth would practically be decided. "Dude, seriously, I'm going to take that ball and throw it at your face in a minute."

"Okay, okay. Jeez," I said.

I rolled over on the bed and watched him play Grand Theft Auto on the Xbox. "Gah! You're too distracting. You made me mess up!" he yells, clearly he's been playing for too long and is getting cranky.

"You just suck," I teased.

"You're the one who sucks," he pouts. "If I did this in real life then I wouldn't have any problems with it."

"You could never steal a car. You'd get caught before you even figure out how to hot wire it." I said somewhat teasingly. I was getting tired, I'd hardly slept last night, and it wasn't helping my mood.

"You only say that 'cause you've never tried. It actually isn't that difficult to do if you know what you're doing." He says without thinking trying to focus on the game.

"What?" I said, "You've tried stealing a car? No way."

"Huh, sorry I can't focus with you talking," he said as he tried making his character switch to another vehicle.

I sighed, giving up on him, and turned back to tossing the ball in the air.

"Alright," Jaden said pausing the game a few minutes later, "You're gonna have to cut that out."

I look down at him sitting on floor. "Hey, what was that you said earlier?"

"What was what?" He asks confused.

"About you stealing a car?"

"Um, Brice, its grand theft auto. It's kind of the point of the game." He smirked with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"No, in real life. You tried stealing a car?" I was beginning to wonder if I had just imagined him saying something about that.

"How did you know about that?" Jaden asked a little in awe. Then slowly as if remembering what he had said his face transformed into an expression of mild horror and shame. "I-I was young, okay?"

I just looked at him blankly. I had no idea what to say. He tried _stealing_ a car? Who even does that?

"I was going through a rough time, okay? I had just found out that my dad who'd raised me wasn't my real father, and I don't know. It just happened." He looked up at me, seeing how I was taking this. "I brought it back afterwards," he said as if that made a difference.

"How could I not know about this," I said without thinking.

"I didn't tell anyone. I was kind of…ashamed. I had stolen other stuff in the past, but it was all minor stuff, you know. Sometimes it happens without me even thinking about it. People's stuff just ends up in my pockets." He paused, "My mom says it's because of my ADHD, but I'm not sure. Sometimes I think..." his voice faded out as if he wasn't sure whether he should tell me.

"I never knew," I said. Suddenly, I recalled all the times when I noticed his pockets bulging slightly after a trip to the store and all the times at school he'd 'found' stuff that he need to bring to the lost and found.

"Yeah well now you do," he said through his teeth.

I felt unsure of what to do, as usual. Here I was thinking Annabeth was hanging out with a bunch of delinquents, yet here I was with my best friend, a thief. Yet, at that moment, I understood why Annabeth still chose to stay with her friends. No matter what happens, Jaden is still my best friend. I can't hold his past mistakes against him, he already felt bad enough. "It's okay, Jaden. You're not a bad person."

He looked at me, shocked by my response. He gave a faint smile, "Thanks, Brice."

* * *

Later that night, not long after Jaden headed home, my phone rang. It was Alaina.

"Hi, how'd it go?" I asked.

"Pretty good, I think. Only it didn't work out exactly as we planned, but give it time."

"What do you mean; it didn't go as we planned?" I was starting to get nervous now.

"Well, Annabeth seemed pretty angry, she yelled at me to get out of their house, but I think it is only a matter of time. I don't how they could _not_ fight after what I did."

"What did you do?" I asked, hesitant to know the answer.

"Nothing that bad: I just kissed him. I tried getting him to kiss me, but I have to give him credit, the guy is pretty faithful to Annabeth. He refused to give in to my advances. Anyways, at the very last second, when Annabeth walked in the door then I kissed him. You can't really avoid fighting when you see your boyfriend making out with you best friend. She should be storming out any time now. Why don't you meet me at The Coffee-House across from their apartment complex and wait?"

"Okay, I'm on my way," I said racing out the door.

By the time I reached the coffee shop, it was late. A bell on the door rang as I opened it. It was a small coffee shop, but it had a cozy atmosphere. I saw Alaina's face jump up as I walked in. She looked worse than I had expected. Usually she was so carefree, but when I met her eyes I knew how distraught she was. The guilt of her recent actions eating her up inside.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked.

"Mmm, yeah. Fine." She responded not looking away from the window. I waited for her to start talking nonstop like she usually does, but she didn't.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Do you thinks she's mad at me?" she asked softly.

I was surprised by the question. Naturally she'd be mad, but it wasn't like I could tell Alaina that. She was worried enough. "I'm sure she just needs time. She'll get over it," I reassured her.

"Thanks, Brice," her gaze shifted away from the window to meet mine. A small smile spread on her lips. At least she was okay, for now. Just then, movement caught my eye outside the window. "Oh! I think I see Annabeth walking out of the apartment! You gotta go to her."

Alaina jumped up and practically pushed me out the door. While Annabeth was heading down the stairs, I set myself up in a more casual position. Annabeth made her way down the stairs slowly, a bag in tow. That was a good sign at least. It looked like she was planning on staying somewhere else tonight. I kind of expected her to be crying a little, but she didn't even look close to crying. Instead, she looked fiercely angry, murderous even. If it wasn't for Alaina counting on me so much, I might have backed out then and there. Instead, I took a deep breath and called out to her, "Annabeth!"

She turned and practically snarled at me, "What are you doing here?"

I took a step back at her response. "Um, I was just out with a friend," I tried not to flat out lie. Annabeth would catch me immediately if I did that.

"Yeah, okay," she said, "Look, I'm just… not in a good mood right now Brice."

I didn't give up yet though, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"If you have to know, it's Alaina. She completely forced herself on Percy and kissed him while I was out of the room," Annabeth huffed. I was a bit surprised that it was Alaina she was mad at and not Percy.

"Are you sure? How do you know it wasn't Percy trying to kiss her?" I asked.

"Of course you'd go and blame Percy!" Annabeth shouted, "You know nothing about him. You think you have everything all figured out, but you don't. You don't know a thing about our lives and what we've gone through together!"

I stared at her, mystified by her anger towards me. No, I don't think she was mad at me exactly; she seemed to be yelling at something else beyond me, maybe blaming life or God for her troubles. "Annabeth- "

"Don't. I just can't deal with this right now." Annabeth stopped me. As she left me standing there watching after her, I heard her sigh under her breath, "been dealing with ignorant mortals too much lately. I need to spend more time at camp."

I wandered back to the coffee shop, where Alaina was expecting to hear all about how everything played out. She looked up hopefully at the edge of her seat when she saw me walk in. I shook my head. Her face changed in an instant from hopeful to one of gloom. I felt bad about disappointing her, about ruining everything. We sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes before I proceeded to tell her what happened.

"So she is mad at me…" Alaina said, "I'm a terrible person."

"Hey! Don't say that! You are a great person, and although Annabeth may not realize it, you are a good friend. You are willing to sacrifice your friendship in order to get her out of a harmful relationship."

"You really think that?" Alaina asked, a small smile pulling at her lips.

"Of course," I smiled at her encouragingly. She had done so much for me this past week; the least I could do is cheer her up a little.

"But what if it isn't a harmful relationship? What if I am wrong about all this? She did take his side after all… What is wrong with me today? I feel like I am questioning everything."

"… I don't think you are wrong. The other day, I asked Annabeth about some bruises on her arms, and I'm pretty sure she is hiding something."

"You think Percy hurt her?" Alaina asked me.

"I don't know. Maybe. It could make since. Maybe she is too scared to yell at Percy, which is why she yelled at you instead. It is safer for her to blame you."

"Yeah, and he hurt you. What's to stop him from hurting other people?" her eyes widened a bit in fear. "We have to call the police or something!"

"What good is that going to do? She is with him by choice. It's not like with CPS. They can't forcefully remove her from the situation."

"Well we have to tell someone. Her parents? We can't just sit and do nothing," Alaina insisted.

"Yeah. You're right. I'll call them. You need to talk to Annabeth though. Get her to trust you again. Maybe she will confide in you and let you help her," I told her.

"She probably hates me now, but I'll try."

"Don't worry. I'm sure she doesn't actually hate you."

"Thanks Brice," she smiled at me, a real genuine smile, and for a moment I could have sworn a felt my heart flutter in my chest.

* * *

 **First of all, I had meant to post this sooner, but my computer was having problems and I was unable to post any more until now. This is almost as far as I got on my final draft so the following chapters are going to be more or less directly from my rough draft. I still have to edit a little bit since I changed things as I rewrote my final copy.**

 **I was surprised at how many people actually viewed my story. I'd like to thank all of you who followed/ reviewed. It was exciting getting notifications from you guys. I plan on posting more this week, but final exams are coming up so it depends on how much time I have to reread and edit things into my final draft. I should have more soon though :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry. I could have had this posted sooner, but I had finals all week that I had to prepare for. Anyways, I plan on posting the rest of the story tonight. Like I said previously, the ending was not rewritten (and is straight from my rough draft) as I kind of got tired of my story towards the end, but I hope it'll at least give the story some closure. This chapter irritates me (haha), but I didn't want to change it because it still had some nice elements and this is what the me from a year ago wrote, so here you go.**

* * *

As soon as I got home, I began looking for information online for a way to contact Annabeth's parents. I was sure that if her parents knew what was going on, they would be willing to help. Finally, after a lot of searching, I managed to find the contact information for Annabeth's father. I tried looking for her mother too, but according to the internet, Annabeth's mother didn't exist.

"Dr. Chase, my name is Brice; I'm a friend of your daughter's. I'm calling because I am concerned about Annabeth," I spoke into the phone.

Dr. Chase sounded a bit panicked, "Is she alright? Please tell me that nothing has happened. Chiron would have contacted me, or Percy, or-"

"You know Percy, sir?" I asked him.

"Yes, but is Annabeth alright? Is she hurt?"

It seemed strange that the first thing he asked was if she was hurt. Perhaps he already knew about Percy. That thought seemed to worry me more, because that would mean that he couldn't or wouldn't help us. "She alright, for the most part, but I'm worried about her."

"What's wrong?"

"It's about Percy, sir. I don't think he is good for Annabeth. I was hoping you could talk to her."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Chase's voice had gotten colder, "Percy would do anything for Annabeth. I could never thank him enough for all he's done. After all, it's thanks to him that I can even have a relationship with my daughter today. Have you talked to Annabeth about your concerns?"

"I tried, but she won't listen."

"Yes. She can be quite stubborn sometimes. I think you should talk to Annabeth about this. Perhaps you are mistaking what you're seeing?"

There it was again. Almost the same thing Annabeth told me when she found out that Percy had attacked me.

Before I could respond, Dr. Chase added, "I doubt she would listen to anything I have to say anyways. If there is anything worth worrying about, Annabeth will work it out herself. She is a strong girl. Goodbye, Brice."

He hung up the phone. "So much for that idea," I mumbled to myself. It seemed like everyone was blind to what Percy was doing. He had to be brainwashing them or something for them to all trust him so much. I sighed and flopped down on my bed. Perhaps tomorrow would go better.

* * *

 **Alaina's POV**

I pulled out the camera on my phone, trying to make some last minute adjustments to my appearance. As hard as I'd tried to cover the dark circles under my eyes, they still managed to show through. I hadn't gotten any sleep last night worrying about Annabeth. The guilt was eating me up inside. I hadn't meant for it to turn out like this.

I know that by most men's standards I am gorgeous. I knew my way around flirting and was practically irresistible. I had learned to embrace this about myself by this point, because no matter what I did, I always managed to draw guys towards me. And, I would be the one getting hurt in the end if I believed they were interested in anything beyond the surface. This way was safer, I could fool around flirting and giving the guy just enough to satisfy him, but never my heart. Annabeth would tease me saying that I must be blessed by Aphrodite to have so many guys interested in me, but I'd say that it is more of a curse than a blessing.

I'd only meant to draw Percy in, lure him into making a move on move on me, and prove the type of guy he really was. Only it didn't work out quite like that. After Annabeth left the room to pick up a movie I had asked her to rent, I began laying the groundwork for Percy. I flirted with him quite a bit, but man, that guy was dense. At the normal rate of flirting, then it would have taken years for him to catch on and make a move, so I had to up my anti quite a bit. Eventually he caught on.

 _"_ _Alaina, can you please stop touching my arm? It's making me kind of uncomfortable…" Percy said, trying to slide away from me._

 _"_ _Oh~ I'm sorry. I just wanted to feel your muscles. Not many boys our age have muscles like that. It's quite impressive~" I said to him while flashing my best, most innocent smile. I rubbed my hand down his arm until it reached his forearm where his tattoo was. I traced my fingers absently over the letters SPQR. I briefly wondered what that stood for and why it looked burned into his arm._

 _"_ _Um… thanks," Percy said uncomfortably. He kept looking at the door nervously and pulled away from my touch once more. I let him go that time and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear to draw more attention towards my face._

 _"_ _You know, I'm so jealous. I wish I had a boyfriend like you. Strong, handsome…" Jeez I sounded desperate! Get a clue Percy, there isn't much time left for you to make a move!_

 _Percy sat there and didn't respond, you could almost see him connecting the pieces. "Um… Alaina, forgive me if I am misinterpreting this, but I can't. I am dating Annabeth. I love Annabeth, so although I am sure that you are a great girl…. I'm sorry."_

 _I was a bit surprised that he would turn me down even after realizing that I was hitting on him. I guess even jerks like him can be loyal. "Mhhm, perhaps if you guys were to break up, you'd give me chance?" I said with a bit of puppy dog eyes._

 _"_ _I don't think that's gonna happen any time soon. Besides, if I lost Annabeth, I-I don't know what I'd do. She is everything to me." He said, running his hand through his dark hair._

 _I am not sure what overcame me at this point. Perhaps seeing how vulnerable Percy looked at that moment drew me in, or perhaps it was the loyalty and love he'd shown that had enticed me. Either way, my body moved of its own accord. I leaned in close to him, my body pressing up against his ever so slightly. I tilted my head and closed my eyes as I felt my lips touch his._

 _At that moment, Annabeth opened the door to the room. I jumped back, as did Percy who was bright red and still struggling to process what just happened. Annabeth face was a confliction of emotions: confused, angry, hurt, betrayed._

 _"_ _Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me, "Get out of my house right now!"_

 _"_ _Annabeth, he- he…" I wanted so badly to blame everything on Percy as we had planned, but I couldn't get the words out._

 _She gave me a cold death glare that left me shivering. I'd never seen Annabeth…no, I'd never seen anybody look so angry._

 _I knew as soon I left the room that what I did was wrong. I was starting to question how bad Percy could really be, after all, his feelings for Annabeth seemed genuine enough. However, Brice's feelings for Annabeth were genuine too, and Brice was a good guy and a good student. I'd been keeping an eye on him, especially recently, and I can tell that he holds whats best for Annabeth in his heart. I knew he was much more suitable for Annabeth, so I was determined to convince myself that regardless of what anyone thought of me, I was doing the right thing. I made the phone call to Brice and managed to act normal enough (although maybe a bit too casual about the whole affair), but by the time Brice made it to the coffee shop I was unable to hide my feelings anymore. It was strange to be so vulnerable around another person. I had spent my entire life hiding my feelings and acting like I didn't care about anything. I was the fun and cheerful one, and I couldn't have anyone thinking otherwise._

It shook my head, pushing those thoughts aside and tried to focus on acting normal. Taking a deep breath, I clicked the power button on my phone and headed to school. It wasn't until later that morning that I saw Annabeth.

"Annabeth! Hey, slow down!" All that did was make her walk faster. "I swear I'm going to kill that girl." I mutter. I chase her down the hallway. When I finally caught up to her she gave me such an icy glare that I regretted trying to talk to her. Only what Brice had told me kept me from turning away and running. "Annabeth, I need to talk to you about Saturday."

She snorted. "You could say that."

"I know you're mad at Percy, but you don't have to take it out on me."

"Why on earth would I be mad at Percy?"

I was taken aback. "Well because he kissed me." I lied. I felt guilty about lying, but I had no other choice.

Annabeth just stared at me. "I can't believe you, Alaina. Doing something like that and then lying to me about it," she scoffed, "I thought we were supposed to be friends."

"I don't understand."

She threw her hands in the air. "Oh my gods, Alaina! Seriously! Percy told me everything. So stop being stupid and admit that it was you who kissed Percy, not the other way around. Then you can say you're sorry and we can get on with our lives, because you know what? Percy apologized when it wasn't even his fault. Right after you left, he practically fell on his knees saying he was sorry. That's what kind of person he is, what kind of person are you?"

She was obviously madder at me than Brice had let on. My chest felt heavy with the shame of what I had done, but it was too late to take it back now. _There's a reason I'm doing this_ I reminded myself. _I refuse to sit by and watch one of my only good friends, one of the few people I feel a true connection with, get hurt in a destructive relationship._

"I know what he does to you," my mouth blurted out the words before I could think to stop it.

Annabeth laughed sarcastically. "Oh really? Then by all means, tell me what he does to me! Tell me that he cares for me. Tell me that he's never let me down or given up on me. Tell me that he is my best friend and he would sacrifice the world before he let someone hurt me!"

My voice was smaller than I would've liked it to be. "I know he hits you. I know he's threatening you."

She ran a hand aggressively through her hair. Her eyes were fiece and sharp, the startling gray color more prominent than ever "Not you too! You've been talking to Brice haven't you, Alaina! He knows nothing about me and neither do you. You should just stay out of it."

Before I could say more she was gone. I watched as her figure retreated down the hallway. I had never seen Annabeth so angry before. She was always the calm one, but I guess I deserved it. I was never much good at minding my own business. _When was I ever going to learn?_

I felt tears well up in my eyes. I just lost my best friend, and there was nothing I could do now that would fix it. I tried to hold back the tears and put on a brave face. That's what I always did, I lived my life always joking and acting like I didn't have a care in the world when all the while I was dying inside. This time, however, I couldn't hold back the tears.

"Alaina?" I heard someone call from behind me.

I turned around to see Brice walking up. When he saw the tears streaming from my eyes he ran up to me, "Alaina! What happened? Are you okay?"

"A-Annabeth, she… she," I couldn't get the words out over my sobbing. God, I must have looked like an idiot. I kiss my best friend's boyfriend and then get upset when she is mad at me. Who even does that? Oh wait, I do.

"It's okay. It's okay Alaina," he said trying to calm me down, but I couldn't stop myself. I put my head into Brice's arms and sobbed into his shirt so less people would see me crying.

* * *

 **Brices POV**

After Alaina had her sobbing spell, I couldn't help but feel a little bit angry with Annabeth. Annabeth had a right to be mad, sure, but that didn't give her the right to treat Alaina like that. Alaina was only trying to protect Annabeth after all. It seemed to me that Annabeth was being so unreasonable about this whole thing.

During lunch Alaina came and sat with me and my friends. She said that everyone else was too busy judging her right now to even listen to her perspective. I guess the rumors spread pretty fast. Annabeth sits with us occasionally, but she was obviously going to avoid us today. I was feeling quite disappointed that our plan didn't work. I guess her father was right when he said that she could be stubborn sometimes.

On my way to the vending machines to get me a bottle of water, I caught a glimpse of Annabeth talking to our AP World History teacher, Mrs. Benson. I hid around the corner and tried to listen to what they were talking about. I don't typically eavesdrop like this, but I couldn't resist.

"I was wondering if I could perhaps move seats?" Annabeth asked Ms. Benson.

"Is there something wrong with your current seat? You aren't having any problems with your classmates are you, dear?" Ms. Benson responded.

"No, nothing like that. I just don't think my current seat is working out."

"You don't have to lie to me Annabeth, dear. If you are having any troubles, then please just let me know."

"Yes, Ms. Benson," Annabeth paused, "I just don't think it is a good idea for me to sit next to Brice right now. Plus, sitting closer to the board will probably help my dyslexia."

That was all I needed to hear. She didn't want to sit next to me? What had I done? I turned to run back to the cafeteria, but given my athletic ability is really low, I managed to trip and drop my stuff everywhere.

Upon hearing the noise, Annabeth and Ms. Benson came around the corner. "Oh my, Brice, are you alright?" Ms. Benson said.

"Yeah, just fine," I grunted. Annabeth looked at me coldly. Her gray eyes seemed to pierce through me. "I'll be going now, you two can continue your conversation."

I quickly picked up my stuff and ran back for the cafeteria. I couldn't believe this. First, Annabeth doesn't want me sitting near her and then she catches me eavesdropping on her. How could this day get any worse?

After lunch ended I wondered into history class. I was already late and even thought about skipping, but I decided it wasn't worth it. I'd have to face up to Annabeth eventually. I was surprised to find Annabeth still in the same seat she always sits in working on the assignment out of the textbook.

"Don't talk to me." Annabeth said before I could even open my mouth. I ignored her.

"I saw you talking to Ms. Benson. Aren't you supposed to have changed seats?"

"Nope. She wants me to 'work it out,' like that is even possible." Annabeth glared at me with her startling gray eyes.

"What did I do wrong? I've just been worrying about you Annabeth." I said trying to defend myself.

"I know. That's the problem. You need to mind your own business. It isn't your place to worry about me. I can take care of myself." She sighed and muttered something under her breath about _stupid mortals_ and _the mist_. "You shouldn't be spreading ideas around people's heads either."

"What?"

"You filled Alaina's head with a bunch of lies about Percy. I'm almost sure you guys planned this whole incident, and I don't know if you were trying to make her feel better about what she did to me or what, but I don't want to be around you if you are going to keep putting down my friends like that." Annabeth said angrily.

"I put your friends down?" I say. She was making me mad now, trying to pin the blame all on me. "You put your own friends down. Alaina was bawling her eyes out in the hallway after what you said to her. Even _she_ didn't deserve that!"

The class was staring at us now. I knew I was being slightly irrational about the whole situation, but she shouldn't get mad at us for trying to help. Annabeth rose from her desk about to say something more but was interrupted by Ms. Benson before she got a chance.

"Annabeth. Brice. Hallway now." Four words and she shut us up instantly.

When we reached the hallway, Annabeth and I went to opposite sides. Ms. Benson stood between us. "What is going on between you two?"

"It's nothing Ms. Benson." Annabeth tries.

"Obviously, it's not nothing. Cough it up."

"It's true Ms. Benson. We were just having a bit of a petty argument, but we've pretty much worked it out now. Haven't we Annabeth?" I offered trying to keep both of us out of trouble.

"Yeah. Everything is good now Ms. Benson," she smiled a fake smile.

"Mmm, well, I expect to hear you both apologize to each other. Then maybe I will consider letting you off for free."

We sit in silence for a minute waiting to see who makes the first move. Finally, I gave in. "I'm really sorry, Annabeth. I never did any of that to hurt you. I was only trying to help."

I half expected her to throw my apology back in may face, tell me again how I've been screwing with her relationships, but instead she just said, "It's okay Brice. It's not your fault, you just don't know what's really going on."

I felt my heart quicken in my chest. I was surprised by how relieved I felt, that she wasn't totally angry with me and was still willing to forgive me. Perhaps, that forgiveness would extend out to Alaina too eventually. However, that relief didn't last long as her words rang in my head ' _You just don't know what's really going on.'_ Those words didn't set right with me. _What did she mean by that? What am I missing_? I wondered.


	10. Chapter 10

Brice's POV

Alaina had called me and told me everything that had happened between her and Annabeth the day all that drama played out. Annabeth never showed up for the rest of the week, and I began to worry. I needed to figure out exactly what was going on. I met Alaina at a café after school to get help with the situation. After ordering our coffees, we sat down at a couch in the corner.

"We need to get all our facts straight first," Alaina said, "There is too much speculation at this point, so I was thinking that we should make a list of everything we know for sure."

"Yeah, hey, that's actually a pretty smart idea!" I exclaimed.

"Course it is, I'm smarter than I look you know," she smiled flirtatiously. I felt my heart race again. N _o, bad heart, you like Annabeth remember!?_

After a while, we had pulled together a list of facts and speculations that looked something like this:

 _Facts (Speculations)_

 _ **·** Annabeth comes to school with scars and bruises (they look like they come from a fight)_

 _ **·** Annabeth lives with Percy and his mother and stepfather (Other possible suspects for Annabeth's bruises/scars)_

 _ **·** Percy attacked Brice and beat him up, nearly killing him (possibly has done this to other people? Annabeth?) (Possibly has unpredictable and violent tendencies) _

_**·** (Percy looks like a delinquent/troublemaker)_

 _ **·** (Annabeth seems to have gone through something traumatic in the past)_

"Hmm it doesn't seem like we have a lot to go on," Alaina notes thoughtfully.

"Actually, I think that is quite a bit. Leastways, it is cause for suspicion." I said.

"Maybe, but we definitely need to do more research." Alaina pulls a laptop out of her schoolbag, "Luckily I brought this with me today," she grins.

We scoured the web for all the information that we could and managed to find a few interesting articles. The first article we found was about an old police report about a seven-year-old runaway named Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Frederick Chase. She was reported missing by her father, but apparently the searched was shortly called off by her stepmother.

"I can't believe that she ran away from home, and at that age too," I said.

"Neither can I. Do you think this has anything to do with…" she trailed off, but I knew what she was trying to imply.

"No, she talks to her dad now, so they must have found her and worked everything out." I said, recalling my conversation with Dr. Chase, "Besides he lives in San Francisco, that is too far away for him to harm her."

"Yeah your right. Maybe we can find something else though. Search for Percy instead."

I did as she told me to and a bunch of results popped up. "Whoa, what is all this?"

"Click on one," Alaina commanded me.

I clicked on the first one titled 'Boy and Mother Still Missing After Freak Car Accident'.

 _Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camero was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding._

 _Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident._

 _Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of several boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past._

"Violent tendencies!? That has to be something!" Alaina said practically jumping out of her seat. I caught a few people glance over at us, but they shorty went back to whatever they were doing. Alaina moved over closer to me to where her body just barely touched mine. She inspects the article closer. "Bookmark this one and see if there are any more related to it."

There were articles about Percy traveling across country blowing up national monuments; he was the subject of a nationwide manhunt! How could Annabeth be with someone like this?

"Oh my gosh! We have to tell Annabeth about this immediately!" Alaina shouted.

I hesitated. Something about this wasn't quite adding up. If Percy had done all this, then why wasn't he in jail? I wasn't sure how Percy got away with this, but Annabeth had a right to know who she was really dating.

* * *

Because we had no way of contacting Annabeth, since she didn't have a cell phone, we had to wait until Monday to show her the articles. Alaina was too afraid to approach her though, so I had to do it by myself. Alaina passed me the articles in the hallway as we waited for Annabeth to head towards her locker. Fortunately, she had returned from camp and was attending classes again. I only hoped that we would be able to get through to her without scaring her off. I knew she was rather defensive about the whole situation, so we had to play our cards carefully.

"Go on, you can do it!" Alaina said pressing her hands on my back as she pushed me in Annabeth's direction before running off.

"I'm going, I'm going," I muttered rolling my eyes as she ran off in the other direction. _Geez that girl,_ I thought.

Annabeth was standing at her locker when I approached her. She looked more relaxed than she had last time I'd seen her, perhaps her break from school was a good thing. Hopefully, she'd be more willing to listen now. Although, something about her still seemed somewhat tense. Perhaps it was the way she didn't relax her shoulders, or the dark circles under her eyes that showed she'd been worrying or stressing about something for a while now.

"Annabeth!" She turned to look at me her eyes reminding me of the sky just before a storm. I shoved the articles I had printed off into Annabeth's hands, feeling proud of myself. Now she would finally be able to realize how dangerous Percy was and would let me protect her. "This is really important Annabeth. Percy is a terrorist. It's not safe to be anywhere near him. He did this when he was _twelve_ , Annabeth. It makes you wonder what he's doing now. I'm sure you don't want to admit it, but Percy _is_ dangerous. He is no good for you and you deserve better than someone like him."

Annabeth looked over the article not paying much attention to my words. Instead, she glanced over the papers I handed her, and amused expression on her lips, perhaps she even looked a little wistful. "I remember that. Gods, everything was so simple then, even if we didn't realize it at the time."

I shifted uncomfortably, "Wait? You knew about this?"

She snorted, "Knew about it? I was there. I was Percy's 'partner in crime' so to speak. If you had bothered to complete your research before you started blaming Percy, you would know that we were kidnapped and Percy stood up to our kidnapper to save me and Grover, the other kid we were with. So yes, I knew about this, and no, it's not really true."

I was startled to learn this. She had known about this? Not only that, but she had been a part of this? Her, Percy, and Grover were kidnapped. I had a hard time imagining it. I guess that explains how close they are and how defensive Annabeth is to them. Going through something like that together, it's natural to become that close. Yet, I still didn't feel like that answered all my questions. Even if Percy was a hero in their kidnapping, that didn't mean he wasn't a bad guy. He still attacked me that day on the beach with no reasoning. Perhaps that incident affected him somehow, or perhaps he was dangerous even before that and he just snapped. I wasn't sure, but I did know one thing. Annabeth is still blinded by Percy and I was running out of options.

* * *

I laid on my bed staring up at the ceiling. I had read every single news article I could find and it seemed like Annabeth was telling the truth. Something about the complete 180 the reporters did felt odd to me though. The more I read them, the further I seemed to get from the truth. None of the articles felt right to me. I thought about calling Alaina to tell her about it, but how can you explain a feeling. Perhaps it would be best to actually get to know Percy myself. If only I could see him, then I would be able to figure out for myself how he really is, but unfortunately for me, the last time I saw him, he beat me to a pulp.

Suddenly my bedroom door flung open slamming against my wall, "You have to help me!" My friend Jaden barged into my room.

I jolted up at his panic-stricken tone, "What is it? What's happened?" I asked, my voice shakey.

"I-I don't know. One minute everything was fine and then the next…" he was breathing heavily, as if he sprinted all the way here. He was clutching his side where his shirt was red and damp. "Th-they…" he lifted his shaking hand from his bleeding side.

"It's okay Jaden. Calm down. Who hurt you?"

"I don't know. It-it wasn't human." He stated frantically.

"You need to calm down. You aren't thinking clearly," I said trying to figure out what was going on, "Sit down."

"No!" he swatted me away when I tried to get him to sit, "It wasn't human!"

He looked me directly in the eyes as he said this. He was deathly serious about this. For a brief moment a forgotten memory of me being attacked by a monster flashed into my head, but it quickly disappeared.

"When I told you about the pickpocketing and the stealing the other week, that wasn't all." He told me, "Sometime I think I see things that aren't quite human. Nobody else sees them, just me. I usually do a pretty good job avoiding them, but this time, I-I couldn't."

I didn't say anything. What was I supposed to say? Hey, I'm sorry you see monsters everywhere, maybe you should see a doctor about that.

"Look man, I just need you to trust me on this. I know it sounds crazy, but you're the only person I can count on to help me right now."

"…Okay."

"I've got a plan." He pulls out a letter from his pocket. "I found this letter from my birth father. It's not much, but… here just look at it"

I took the letter as Jaden began rummaging about for some bandages.

 _Son,_

 _I am sure that by the time you are reading this you have already gone through many troubles, and trust me there are many more to come. If it ever gets too hard, if there is ever anything too dangerous to fight, go to this address. There are people there that will be able to explain everything to you. They will teach you to fight the monsters in this world and how to defend yourself. It is the only safe place for people like you._

 _Half-Blood Hill_

 _Long Island, New York_

 _(800)009-0009_

 _Regards,_

 _Dad_

"What is this supposed to even mean 'the only safe place for people like you'?" I say irritated by the vagueness of the letter.

"I don't know, but I am supposed to go there. I have this feeling." He paused to finish bandaging his injury, "Mom doesn't know about this letter. I found it on my twelve birthday, but I've been putting off going because I get the feeling that my life will never be the same once I go. I just don't think I have any other choice. My mom, I think she knows. She's told me some stuff, but not everything."

"Why?"

Jaden looks out the window, "Crap. They're outside."

I looked outside the window, but I didn't see anything. There were a few women that looked rather similar with their greenish looking skin circling the building, but overall it looked absolutely normal.

Jaden takes off his shirt and tosses it to me. "What are you doing?" I ask.

"Switch," he says.

"What, why?"

"They can smell my scent moron. I've been tricking monsters into losing me for years, I think I know what I'm doing by now. Switch," he commands. After swapping my shirt for his bloodied one, I hear him whisper, "I've never seen this many before."

I can tell he is scared. He acts confident, but his voice keeps breaking and his hands are shaky as he tells me his plan. _I am not a coward. I can be brave_ I tell myself as we start to put the plan into action. I run out the door first, Jaden leaves a minute after I do. When I take off out the door sprinting (which is probably a light running speed to athletic people), I notice several people follow me. The green ladies were behind me with the baseball bats and a couple more carrying odd objects like a ruler and textbook. As I continue running, they get closer and closer to me. I run a few blocks before turning where Jaden told me to turn. As soon as I turn the corner I feel a cold scaly finger pull back the collar of Jaden's shirt, sending chills down my spine. Another hand grabs me by the arm. I feel like nails are being driven into my skin. Voices keep shouting at me in Greek, but I couldn't make out what they were saying with all the hissing. Wait, hissing?[ES1]

Suddenly, a car skids up to us nearly running us over. The door pops open, "Hop in," Jaden shouts.

The 'monsters' let go of me at the sight of Jaden and rush towards him. Jaden quickly closes his door in an attempt to block them out. I jump into the passenger seat, "Drive!" I yell.

The tires spin and we run over at least half the 'monsters', but when I look back, they look perfectly fine. "What was that!? That didn't hurt them at all!"

"I told you, they're monsters. You can't kill them. Leastways, I never could."

We are flying through the back streets of New York trying to get to the address in the letter. I close my eyes, feeling like I'm going to be sick.

"Hey man, don't puke in the car, I need to return it after we get to Half-Blood Hill, whatever that is."

"I'm fine, just a little nauseous. I don't even understand what is going on."

"I'm sure they will explain it to us when we get there. The letter said it would." He reassured me, although he sounded a bit doubtful himself.

"Yeah, some letter. That's all you get from your dad your whole life and your willing to stake your life on it." I said spitefully.

"…I have no other choice," there is harshness in his voice when he said it making me regret my rude comment before.

We ride the rest of the way in silence. I don't notice any more monsters, but considering they all looked pretty human to me, I couldn't be completely sure. I look out the window and see a bunch of strawberry fields. Occasionally I would see strange creature tending to them with furry legs or see the plants seem to have faces. This made my head hurt and I started to feel nauseous again.

Jaden suddenly turned into a small drive that I hadn't even see there before. It looked like we were in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we pulled in, the car died. "Shoot, the thing won't start."

He kept revving the engine, but it looked like we were out of gas.

"What are you talking about? We should still have half a tank left." He said as he tries to start it up for the umpteenth time. Sighing he said, "Guess we'll have to go the rest of the way on foot."

The second we get out of the car, I hear a strangely familiar hissing sound coming from behind. I look around to see the ladies from before. Their greenish tinted skin didn't look harmed at all, in fact they just looked angrier. "Jaden…RUN!"

It took him only a millisecond to figure out what I was talking about and he was off in an instant with me following just behind him. We ran up the hill where a giant tree sat on top of it. The monsters followed in pursuit. They were extremely fast and caught up to us in no time. I braced myself for the oncoming attack, prepared to be thrown against a tree or whatever other attack they had planned, but, to my surprise, they completely ignored me. They sped right past me towards Jaden who was a couple of yards further up.

I had no time to react and watched in horror as my best friend was beat over the head with a baseball bat or was it a spear. Blood gushed down his face, but he held his own trying to dodge their attacks. "JADEN!"

He grimaced in pain, "Run get help."

I had no idea what to do. My best friend was being attacked and the only thing I could do was run away and get help, but it wasn't like I could help myself him either. Those things couldn't be killed Jaden had said. "Just hold them off until I get back!" I yell before sprinting off up the hill.

The closer I got to the top of the hill, the more I felt a nagging feeling to turn around. I ignored it. I needed to get help for Jaden. This feeling became more persistent as I climbed the hill. I began to grow worried that I might not even make it there at all. My feet seemed to get heavier with every step, making it impossible to run at this point. "HELP! HELP!" I called, hoping someone might hear me in case I didn't make it.

Everything was going in and out focus. I felt like just crawling on the ground and taking a nice long nap, but something told me I couldn't. There was something important I was doing. What was I doing? My brain felt foggy. I remembered calling for help, so I continued calling, although I didn't understand why. The last thing I remember was getting to the top of the hill and looking down into an empty valley.


	11. Chapter 11

I woke up in the stolen car many hours later. Or at least, I assumed it was many hours later because it was really dark outside now. "What happened," I said aloud. My voice sounded like a frog and I had a headache. How did I get here? I couldn't remember anything since… since when? I had talked to Annabeth this morning and then after school I went home. Jaden came running in. Jaden? I had a bad feeling something awful happened, but I couldn't remember anything. I felt as if I'd been drugged. I groaned and started the car. All I wanted to do was flop down on my bed and pass out.

* * *

The next day, Jaden wasn't at school. I needed to talk to him about what happened. My memory was failing me. The entire afternoon was a complete blank other than the occasional unclear image. I remember blood and feeling fear. I knew I felt like I needed to get help, but why?

Additionally, I had a growing concern about the car that he'd took. I parked it on a side street somewhere and quickly ditched it, but I was still worried the police would find a way to find me. Why had I ever gotten in a stolen vehicle with Jaden? That had to be one of the stupidest things I've done. I am a rule follower; I don't do stuff like that. I only wish I could remember what'd happened, but everything seemed foggy.

"You look like crap," Alaina teased me at lunch.

"Gee, thanks," I said.

"Rough night?"

I hesitated. I wondered if I should tell her. I was almost sure that I could trust her, but a little part of me warned against it. "Yeah."

"Something happen?" she said concerned. She grabbed my hand in a comforting way.

"I think so. I-I don't remember," I pulled away. "Jaden and I, we- um…"

"You don't remember?" She sounded skeptical.

I shook my head, "Jaden came over last night and somehow talked me into doing some stuff. I don't exactly remember the details, but I'm worried since Jaden isn't at school. We were running from something and then I woke up in a car…" My voice faded out. I was not making this sound very good. Wait, a thought crossed my mind, _could we have been running from the police?_ That would make since given the car, but something about it didn't sound right. I feared that we were running from something much worse than that and Jaden had gotten caught.

"Brice? You okay? Did you take something? Why don't you remember?"

I shook my head. I didn't know. "Alaina, you have to help me. You're the only person I can trust to help me right now." Something about those words sounded familiar. I looked at her practically begging her to help me. I was afraid that something really bad had happened.

"Don't worry, whatever you need," she nodded reassuringly. I was relieved. After all she has done to help me with Annabeth, I knew I could count on her with this.

* * *

After school, we stopped by Jaden's apartment. I sincerely hoped he was home. Maybe he was just sick or felt like skipping school today. We rang the doorbell and a woman in her mid-forties. She had frizzy ashen blonde hair and looked stressed. "Yes?" she said opening the door only a crack.

"Um, hi, we were wanting to see Jaden," I said.

"We're friends from school," Alaina added.

Jaden's mom looked at us warily, "He's not home." She started to shut the door.

"Wait!" I shouted, "Um if you don't mind, do you have any idea where he might be?"

"Why? Have you seen him? He didn't come home last night and…" Her voice was desperate and she was visibly upset.

"No ma'am. I'm sorry. I thought you would know." I spoke softly, my voice coming out small.

"Why would I know? He's probably-" she shook her head as her eyes began to water, "You guys should just go home. There's nothing you can do," she slammed the door shut.

"Well that was intense," Alaina said. She looks at me expectantly.

"He didn't come home last night," I whisper mostly too myself. A flash of him yelling at me to get help with blood gushing down his face popped into my head. "Oh no…"

"What is it?"

"Jaden, I think he was injured. We- we were attacked. I went to get help." Memories came back to me, although they didn't exactly make sense to me. We had been looking for an address his dad gave him, when we were attacked by something ( A gang?), then I went to get help, but passed out before I got there. "I think I know where he might be."

* * *

We took a taxi to Half-Blood Hill and managed to reach it by dusk. I was starting to remember things more clearly now, but it would come and go in flashes. Our attackers kept changing and once I remembered them getting run over with the car, but that was impossible. They would have died from that, not keep chasing us. When we got to the bottom of the hill, the taxi driver dropped us off. On the hill, there were traces of blood, but nobody was in sight. As we marched up the hill, I began to have that nagging feeling again, along with it growing more physically demanding. Alaina was already out of breath.

"Hey, why don't we stop and rest for a minute," she said.

"Yeah, okay," I said.

We laid on the hill resting for a moment, when I saw two figures approaching from the bottom of the hill holding hands. It was too dark to tell who it was exactly, which made me nervous, especially with all the events of late. I nudged Alaina and whispered "Hide."

We hid behind the bushes and watched the two figures stroll easily up the hill. When they got within earshot, I head a familiar voice say, "I don't understand why Chiron called me here. I mean he gets new campers all the time. What's so special about this one?"

The other voice, a male's, said "I just hope it's not another prophecy. I'm sick of prophecies."

The girl laughed. By now they were close enough to make out some features.

"Annabeth?" Alaina said recognizing them before I did. She stood up and stepped out of our hiding spot, which pretty much forced me to reveal myself as well.

"Alaina? And Brice? What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked.

"I should be asking you two the same thing," Alaina said defiantly. I noticed how she averted her eyes from Percy and focused solely on Annabeth.

"Look, I don't really know what's going on here, but we were called here by the camp director to help with something," Percy said.

I decided it would be best to concede. Although I would hate to ally with Percy, I was willing to if he could help me find my friend. If he knew the camp director, then it was my best bet of getting in. "We were looking for Jaden. He came here last night."

"Jaden? What was he doing here?" Annabeth asked skeptically.

"There… were some people chasing him I think. He found a letter from his dad telling him to come here. It didn't really make sense, but I helped him anyways."

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other, having a silent conversation. They both nodded in agreement before Annabeth started speaking. "Okay. We will help you look for him. He might have made it to camp, so we will look there. You guys continue searching here."

I wanted to go with them, but they left before I could say anymore. Plus, I couldn't seem to make it up that cursed hill! Disappointed in myself, I sat back down again and covered my face in my hands.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Alaina comforted me, "They're going to find him."

"I know- it's just… I feel like I failed him. I was supposed to go get help last night, but I couldn't. I can't even help find him now. I feel so useless."

Alaina remained silent, but she sat down beside me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Sorry, I'm acting like this," I sniffed, "I'm the guy, I'm supposed to be the strong one."

"You don't have to pretend to be strong for me," She smiled softly, "You can save that for Annabeth."

"Annabeth?"

"Yeah. There's always a chance. It will just take more time." She said, not meeting my eyes.

"Oh, yeah. I guess." I wasn't sure if that was what I wanted anymore. My emotions were all over the place right now.

* * *

We sat there together for what felt like over an hour. I was beginning to worry that something had happened to Annabeth and Percy. _Me? Worrying about Percy? Something must be wrong with me today._ Alaina was falling asleep on my shoulder by the time I saw figures coming down the hill. There were more than I expected. I nudged Alaina awake and pointed towards the approaching figures.

There looked to be five people coming down the hill. Two looked to be Annabeth and Percy and another one looked like one of Annabeth's friends. The other two I couldn't recognize. One was an older man in wheelchair and another small, porky man that resembled a cherub. When they got closer, I was able to make out their conversation.

"I still don't understand why I have to go," said the cherub looking man with a loud Hawaiian shirt on.

"Nobody really wants you here either," Percy muttered.

"Might I remind you Peter Johnson, I am still not opposed to turning you into an Atlantic Bottlenose," the man scoffed.

"Now, Mr. D, Percy. You know we need a god to let a mortal enter camp," the man in the wheelchair rebukes them.

Alaina and I stand up and walk towards them. "Did you find him?" I asked.

"Yes," Annabeth answers simply.

"Where is he? Is he okay? Can I see him?"

Annabeth didn't answer me and instead looked pointedly at the man in the wheelchair.

"My name is Chiron. You must be Brice," he said reaching out to shake my hand, "And you Alaina."

"Nice to meet you," Alaina said politely.

"Explain what's going on!" I nearly shouted. I was tired of these antics; I wanted answers.

"Don't worry. Your friend is safe. He is sleeping at the infirmary. I just needed to confirm a few things for myself before I let you in. Grover?"

"A-ah, yes sir! They are both human. Brice is simply worried about his friend. I don't feel any ulterior motives," Grover said.

"Very well then. Mr. D?"

"Argh, why must I do everything for you people?" He grunted. Then, suddenly, he snapped his fingers and we were in a house. _Did I black out for a minute? How'd I get here?_ Beside me, Alaina gripped my arm. The look on her face told me that she was terrified by what just happened.

"You must be shocked." Chiron said.

"Shocked is a bit of an understatement." I scoffed. My stomach churned and I felt queasy from the unexpected teleportation, and from the looks of it, so did Alaina.

He sat us down and explained everything. Many times, I wanted to think that these people were crazy believing the Greek gods were real, but they also showed me so many things that I couldn't explain. They told me about the mist and how it affects how people perceive things. Percy told me that it wasn't him that beat me up, but actually a monster. That was also the reason for Annabeth's scars. My whole perspective on the world had changed. Annabeth and Percy being half gods, saving the world, monsters existing, gods existing! It all seemed so surreal. _How was I supposed to live normally knowing all this?_

"You'll probably forget it all as soon as you leave," Grover said.

"What?" _How'd he know what I was thinking?_

"The mist doesn't really affect people inside camp, but when you leave, I can't say what you will think happened here tonight," Grover answered.

"Then, I will forget all of this?" I asked.

"The mist works in strange ways. Mortals see what they want to see. That could mean just about anything for you," Annabeth said. "Most likely you will forget about most of this. You might remember pieces, but your mind will make up stuff to fill in the blanks."

"Enough. There is no way we can predict what will happen. Let the kids go see their friend now," Chiron interrupted, "Annabeth, show them to the infirmary. Percy I would like to speak with you privately."

* * *

Alaina and I were still feeling the effects of shock after what we just heard as we followed Annabeth down to the infirmary. Inside, Jaden was resting on a bed. He was awake and sitting with a pillow behind his back, but he looked in pretty bad shape. He had many bruise and cuts and was sipping on some odd golden looking drink. He looked up at us when we came in and grinned.

"Looks like you finally decided to show up. You looked pretty pathetic passed out on that hill," he joked.

"Good to see you Jaden," I smiled, glad that he was safe.

"Alaina, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you're a demigod too?!" Jaden said.

"No no, I just came here with Brice," Alaina answered defensively.

Jaden looked from me to Alaina to Annabeth and back. A big grin broke across his face, and he wiggled his eyebrows at me. I could practically hear him now, "Oooh, never pegged you for a player, Brice."

I shook my head at him, "Alaina only came to help me find you. We were worried."

"Really? You came to find me?" he asked Alaina.

"Brice asked me to," Alaina shrugged trying to act casual, but her face was tinted red. I guess I wasn't the only one capable of reading Jaden's expressions.

"Ahem," Annabeth interrupted, "I'm going to give you guys some space. I need to go talk to Chiron."

"Annabeth wait," I said as she turned to leave. She looked back at me.

"What is it?"

"I-I wanted to apologize to you for all the accusations I made against Percy and for trying to interfere in with your life. Even if I didn't know, it wasn't my place. I should have trusted you more," I rubbed the back of my neck awaiting her reply.

"Me too! What I did was so wrong, and I've regretted it every second since. Even if I had good intentions, I never should have done what I did. As your friend I should have been there for you if your relationship ended, not try to force it to end because I disapproved. Please forgive me! I want to go back to being your friend!" Alaina pleaded.

Annabeth looked at us in disbelief. I was afraid that she wasn't going to accept our apologies, that she hated us after all. Instead, she gave us a faint smile, "I would like that. You guys don't need to apologize. I know it is the mists fault, not yours. You were only trying to protect me. Although I was really mad about what you did, I think that from now on, things will be better. It'll still take some time though"

* * *

 **Several Weeks Later**

Jaden was coming back to school today, and I was excited to see him. Lunch with only Eli and me just wasn't the same. Of course, Annabeth and Alaina would come sit with us occasionally. Annabeth knows some people at the camp Jaden has been staying at the past few weeks, so she has been keeping us informed of how he's doing. Annabeth was still dating Percy, but for some reason, it didn't bother me like it used to. Apparently it was all a big misunderstanding. Although I can't seem to recall what the misunderstanding was, I remember both Alaina and I apologizing for everything. I truly meant it too. Looking at them now, I don't know how I ever thought anything bad about Percy.

"Long time no see."

I turned around to see Jaden standing behind me, "Jaden!" I called out.

Jaden smiled when he saw my face.

"Dude, I haven't seen you in forever. How was camp?"

"Actually, camp was awesome. I, uh, found out some things about my family that I didn't know before."

He was acting strange, but I let it go. I'd been several weeks since I'd seen him last. "That's great!"

"Hey, um… how much do you remember about the night you visited camp?" Jaden asked me.

"I never visited you at camp. I saw you at a hospital near camp. Is that what you mean?" I said confused.

"Oh yeah, that right," he laughed tensely, "Um.. I never got to tell you last time I saw you, but I wanted to say thank you. You probably don't remember, but it was because of you that other members of the camp found me. If you hadn't of been there calling for help, I don't think I would have made it. Everyone was actually really impressed. No mortal should have been able to reach the top of the hill, but you were so determined that night. You saved me, so thank you."

"What are you even talking about?" I laughed.

"It's nothing. Forget it," he sounded a bit disappointed, but he shortly livened up. "Hey, Annabeth and Percy and their friends from camp are going to the pizza place tonight. You should join us!" he said enthusiastically.

"Sorry, as much as I would like that, I've already got plans for tonight."

"Haha, you? Plans?" Jaden teased.

"Yes, actually," I said proudly, "I've got a date."

Jaden's expression was priceless. "With a girl?!"

I smiled, Jaden's teasing wouldn't bother me this time. "Yes, with Alaina actually. It will be our first official date."

"Congratulations, man. Who would've thought? Brice and Alaina." Jaden teased..

I couldn't help but feel happy inside. I imagined Alaina and I's first date. Her pretty flirtatious smile, the way she would hold my hand, and perhaps, if I was lucky enough, the way her lips would feel on mine as I kissed her. I could imagine everything. Maybe if the gods were on our side, it would progress into something far more and we would live a wonderful, happy life together.

 **THE END**

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the story. I know I didn't go into detail about what was really going on at camp, but I wanted that to be left to your imagination since this is told from the mortal's perspective. Also, in case it wasn't clear, Jaden's godly parent is supposed to be Hermes, god of thieves and travelers. I was originally considering doing a second part with Jaden and a quest, but I am not going to at this point, but if anyone would like to write it then feel free. Personally, I don't think this is good enough for a second part, and that wasn't really what interests me. (I just like cliché misunderstandings and secrets).**

 **Please review and let me know what you thought (just don't be too hard on me, this is still the first story I've written).**


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